Israel envoy in New York City: ‘We, the Jewish people, prefer peace’

Israel does not want an endless war, Ofir Akunis, the consul general of Israel in New York, told JNS in a sit-down interview at his office on Thursday. “We, the Jewish people, prefer peace,” he said.

“We will not be in Gaza once the hostages are released and once we are sure that there are no more terrorists or arsenal of terrorists,” he added.

Akunis has been representing the State of Israel in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Delaware since May 1.

Beginning in 2015, he held a number of Cabinet positions, including as the minister of innovation, science and technology.

In 2020-21, Akunis served as minister of regional cooperation. During that period, Israel signed the Abraham Accords peace treaties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

On Thursday, Akunis emphasized Israel’s lack of interest in staying in Gaza long-term.

“We weren’t in Gaza prior to October 7, there was a ceasefire. We didn’t start the fire, they did. We are there because they forced us to be there after almost 20 years,” he said.

“And where is the world? The world does not know the facts—I am here to refresh their memory,” he added.

Similarly, he stated, Israel would not be in Lebanon if it weren’t for Hezbollah incessantly targeting Israel for the last 25 years. “We don’t want to be in Lebanon. There is no territorial conflict between Israel and Lebanon,” he said.

The Gaza Strip could be as prosperous as the United Arab Emirates if not for Hamas, he told JNS.

Addressing antisemitic protests in New York, Akunis said, “I can’t stand the idea that they are burning American flags in the streets of Manhattan or that they waved the PLO flag 500 meters from Capitol Hill a few minutes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech [to a joint session of Congress] last July.”

“This is unacceptable. If you want America to die, you don’t need to be here. Actually, if you ask me, they need to make them leave the States,” he added.

“I represent the biggest Jewish community in the world aside from Israel,” he noted.” It’s a huge honor to be an envoy for the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”

Q: Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who was widely praised for his policies vis-à-vis Israel, was reelected. Do you expect the same in his new term?

Akunis: We respect the decision of the American people. I said last Tuesday that the American people would vote for the candidate they see fit for themselves, not for Israel. They did. They may have voted on issues like cost of living, inflation and immigration and of course on foreign policy. Israel is always a big issue.

As an Israeli diplomat, I respect their decision and we are willing and happy to work with the new administration as we are working with the current administration until mid-January.

We know President Trump from his previous term and we all remember the very positive decisions that he made regarding the State of Israel. He moved the U.S. embassy from my city, Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem, he recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan heights, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared the settlements in Judea and Samaria not inconsistent with international law.

We are facing new challenges. Iran was a challenge also in his first term. We are looking forward to working together with President Trump and his administration on the war and other issues as well.

What should we expect from President Joe Biden in the next and last two months of his mandate?

A: You should ask him. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room, and that is the end of the war. I told Galei Tzahal [Israel’s Army Radio] today that we do not want an endless war. We, the Jewish people, prefer peace. We were forced to defend ourselves and it’s still happening. The moment we know that the three goals of the war, which are the return of the hostages, the elimination of Hamas in Gaza and of Hezbollah south of the Litani River, are met, the war will end.

I don’t know if this will happen before mid-January. We all wish for Hamas to release the hostages right now, without conditions. Gaza cannot return to what it has been from the summer of 2007, when Hamas took over the administration in the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority.

Hezbollah has been attacking Israel for the last 25 years. Lebanon is a country. They should enforce their laws. We don’t want to be in Lebanon. There is no territorial conflict between Israel and Lebanon.

I think there is huge potential. I said it also as minister of science and as minister of regional cooperation. I think that the Gaza Strip can be as successful as the Emirates. The only reason it does not happen is Hamas. They are using their own people as human shields, their kindergartens as military bases to fire missiles, it’s the same in Lebanon.

Do you believe we should expect an expansion of the Abraham Accords?

A: I served as minister of regional cooperation in 2020. Back then, before the [U.S. presidential] elections [when Biden defeated Trump], we were very close to declaring that there were two additional Muslims countries that wanted to be part of the new Middle East of peace and part of the Abraham Accords.

Things have changed but I hope that it will happen in the near future. We want peace, we are praying for peace, not war. The Iranians want war. I am very happy that the peace treaties with Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and the Emirates are so strong. There are hundreds of thousands of Israelis who are coming here to New York through Dubai.

I would like to say that it is not appropriate for American airlines to temporarily cancel the route to Tel Aviv while Emirates is still flying. There is a line from Dubai to Tel Aviv with a few flights a day.

I call on American airlines right here, right now to fly to Tel Aviv as soon as possible. It’s very important for me, I say it as an official diplomat of the State of Israel. This is unacceptable. My expectation from allies is to be with us when it’s good and also in difficult times. So renew it.

There is a Hostage and Missing Families Forum branch in New York. What is your relationship with the families of the hostages and what initiatives have you put in place to publicize their plight?

A: I am asking to see every family who comes to this city. I even did this as a minister in the Israeli Cabinet before I was appointed as consul general.

I love and admire them because they are very strong and brave. I met here Ayelet Samerano, who saw

her son being kidnapped by an UNRWA employee. I think there should be hundreds of people protesting in front of the U.N. building about it. She came here and told me her story.

I met redeemed Hamas captive Mia Schem here and heard her horrific testimony about the tunnels of Gaza, as well as siblings Maya and Itay Regev and many more. I think that our duty is to put the international community under pressure for them to pressure Hamas.

It was a very wrong idea to put Israel under pressure. Hamas kidnapped them, they burned people alive, they raped women. We want our people back in their homeland with their families, children like Ariel [Akunis points at a picture of 4-year-old Ariel Bibas], Holocaust survivors, old women, IDF field observers. We saw horrible pictures from October 7. The world must put Hamas under pressure, this is the only way to bring them home and let them go free.

It will happen. They will not be there forever. It’s very difficult because if leaders around the world, governments or communities blame Israel, the enemy sees it.

I say it in every meeting and every event. I quote Moses, one of the bravest leaders of the Jewish people, who said to Pharaoh, ‘Let my people go.’ That’s what I am saying now.

We are launching campaigns and initiatives all the time even though the media is not reporting on it. There’s always ongoing talks to bring about their release. [The late Hamas chief Yahya] Sinwar refused, and those who see themselves as responsible for Hamas want to get us to agree to their conditions. But the tide is turning.

We will bring our conditions to the table. We will not be in Gaza once the hostages are released and once we are sure that there are no more terrorists or terrorists’ arsenal.

We weren’t in Gaza prior to October 7, there was a ceasefire. We didn’t start the fire, they did. We are there because they forced us to be there after [we left] almost 20 years [ago, during the disengagement in 2005].

And where is the world? The world does not know the facts. I am here to refresh their memory.

Are you currently engaged in any projects to make inroads with the Jewish community in New York?

A: I represent the biggest Jewish community in the world aside from Israel. It’s a huge honor to be an envoy for the State of Israel and the Jewish people. I have been here since May 1.

I met the Persians, the Bukharans, the Moroccans, the Greeks, the big organizations like UJA-Federation of New York, the American Jewish Committee, the Zionist Organization of America and many others. There is a direct connection between us. One weekend, I found myself in five different synagogues in less than 15 hours. We talk very openly.

The very first mission I talked about was antisemitism on college campuses.

We cooperate and collaborate with Jewish organizations on ideas on how to stop it. Now it’s quieter. I am very happy because the police and leaders declared that enough is enough. It wasn’t only against the Jewish students or Israel, they screamed ‘Death to America’, they burned the American flag. This is unacceptable.

I remember being five or six years old when I first saw this on television, but it happened in Tehran, not Manhattan, and in Cairo when the opposition who protested against President [Anwar] Sadat’s [1979] peace treaty with Israel screamed ‘Death to America’ and burned the American flag together with the Israeli flag. It’s always together.

Now look at this [Akunis points at American and Israeli flags placed side-by-side in his office]. This reflects the beauty of the U.S.-Israeli alliance. I am a big admirer of the United States. I want to help this country help itself.

I can’t stand the idea that they are burning American flags in the streets of Manhattan or that they waved the PLO flag 500 meters from Capitol Hill a few minutes after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech last July.

This is unacceptable. If you want America to die, you don’t need to be here. Actually, if you ask me, they need to make them leave the States. Even though some of them who were afraid to show themselves wore masks, I saw a few clips of people who were without masks. Ask them to leave. It’s not freedom of speech.

I am for freedom of speech, I am for human rights, but if someone says they want to kill me, I need to defend myself, I shouldn’t be naive. They said it and they did it once [Akunis points at an image from the 9/11 attacks]. Nobody wants this again.

You better believe me, when they have the ability to, they will do it again. I know it from the State of Israel. I said as a minister that the very first chance our enemies have, they will attack and try to destroy us. They understood that October 7 was the right time. They want to commit genocide.

I will never accept or be apathetic or indifferent to people using the word “genocide” against our nation. We were nearly exterminated by the Nazis before they were stopped by the British and the Americans. Hamas tried to commit genocide against our people on October 7, 2023, and then on October 8, Hezbollah started to fire rockets toward Nahariya, Kiryat Shmona, the towns and villages of the north, and lately even Haifa and other places.

They are saying that they want to destroy the State of Israel. Hamas wrote it in the first chapter of their charter. In the first paragraph, they wrote that they want to ruin the State of Israel and establish an Islamic state instead.

The Middle East these days no longer includes [the late Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah and Sinwar, the cruelest enemies of the Jewish people in the last 20 years, and it is a huge opportunity.

In the darkness, you can see a ray of light, and I can see lots of rays of light. I wish to see in the next few years Lebanon as an independent state. Lebanon used to be a Christian and very modern state with pubs, discotheques and fashion. It was the Switzerland of the Middle East. The Syrians, the PLO and then Hezbollah ruined it. I hope that one day, we will sign a peace treaty with Lebanon.

What do you think about the explosion of antisemitism on campus?

A: I met students right here in my bureau and I am still talking with them. We are for them. I talked with the attorney general, with the mayor, the governor about the campuses. They are all very committed and they told me that they will not let these protesters cross the red line. It’s much better now and I hope it will continue.

Our students must show strength to the other side, I am not against criticism, but first of all behave yourself, you will not scream or be violent. I am very happy that our students stand up for their rights.

What do you think of President Biden’s response to Oct. 7?

A: I will never forget President Biden’s declaration on October 7 and the ‘Don’t’ speech [in October 2023, directed at Israel’s enemies thinking of joining Hamas’s war against the Jewish state]. I respect it, I appreciate it, he came to the State of Israel with Secretary of State Blinken. I said it as a minister, it was a very good thing to do.

From time to time, there are differences, not about the strategy, and not about major beliefs like the fact that Iran cannot hold nuclear weapons and that we need peace in our region, but about specific issues. A lot of people talked about Rafah. [The IDF going into] Rafah was necessary. We are holding the Philadelphi Corridor [on Gaza border with Sinai] because we need to be there, Hamas still exists in Gaza. They are broken but some units are still there. They want to smuggle weapons from Egypt via the corridor to Gaza and use it against our people. We need to be there.

Once we make sure that it is quiet and that there no longer are Hamas terrorists trying to smuggle weapons, we won’t stay. We never said we would be there forever. We are defending the innocent people of Gaza while Hamas is doing the opposite, using them as human shields.

My friends used to send me pictures from Gaza showing how they protect children. Meanwhile, Hamas steals humanitarian aid and instead of bringing it to the population, takes it to the tunnels and for the benefit of the terror organization.

From time to time, there are differences. I remember the differences between [Prime Minister Yitzhak] Shamir and [President George H.W.] Bush, [Prime Minister] Golda [Meir] and [President Richard] Nixon, [President Jimmy] Carter and [Prime Minister Menachem] Begin, but we are talking about our different opinions. In general, I think that we are one unit, we are the forefront of the West in the Middle East for the United States and Europe.

In general, it’s a very strong alliance. President Biden declared himself as a Zionist, and I like this, because I am a Zionist.

I am a proud Jew, proud Zionist and proud Israeli. I’m often asked about the order. My answer is very simple: Zionism came from Judaism and the State of Israel comes from both.

What is your message to the Diaspora and the people of Israel back home?

We are here for the community. The Israeli consulate is their home. We work for the Jewish communities and we are here for the Israelis. The name of this place is Beit Israel [the House of Israel]. They need us not only for technical issues but also for support. This is an open place. We will continue to cooperate and meet all the Jewish communities, not only in New York but also in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, Cleveland, New Jersey, the city of Philadelphia and other places.

I ask them to maintain unity. The Jewish people came from different backgrounds. They came to Israel from Latin America, Poland, Morocco, Greece and other places with all their differences. It’s the beauty of our people. When we felt the dangers of their current situation, we united, and I ask them to keep on being united, because when we show unity, our enemies see it, and when we are divided, they see it too. When we are one force, we are much stronger. Stay united during the war but also once the war finishes, and I hope that will happen soon.

These are historic times, days we will remember for the rest of our lives. People will talk about this in the far future as well. I don’t think that it’s less important to represent my people here as consul general than it is to serve them as minister and member of Knesset, because of all the things we talked about including antisemitism, the war and the fact that other countries around the world are trying to destroy us. I am here to defend our people and I’ll continue to do it. This is the mission of my life.