Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. delivers heartfelt talk, deep insights in Fort Worth

By Michael Sudhalter

Israel Ambassador to the United States Dr. Yechiel Leiter visited Congregation Ahavath Sholom on Thursday, Jan. 8, in Fort Worth and spoke at an event sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Fort Worth & Tarrant County.

“You’re carrying the weight of your bubbies and zaydes for 2,000 years,” Leiter told the audience of approximately 300. “It’s a weight you have to bear, and bear it with pride. Add a little bit more to your prayers, your contributions, your trips to Israel, your support of Israel, your support of local politicians who are supporting Israel. That weight will be a pleasant weight to carry.”

Leiter, 66, who was born in Pennsylvania, made aliyah in the late 1970s and served in the Israel Defense Forces, spoke for approximately 45 minutes and then answered questions for about a half-hour.

After being introduced by Israel Consul General for the Southwest Region Livia Link-Raviv, Leiter spoke about Oct. 7, the war that followed, misinformation and antisemitism, the strength of the United States-Israel relationship and prospects for peace in the Middle East.

Before the speech, Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem Carlos Flores presented a special recognition from Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker to Leiter and Link-Raviv, and offered words of admiration for, and cooperation with, Israel.

“John F. Kennedy said, ‘Diplomacy and defense are not substitutes for one another. Either alone will fail,’” Flores said. “I think this exemplifies the course of Israel’s existence — its continued balance. It’s not easy. It requires collaborations and friendships forged not only in good times, but through adversity. We value our relationship with Israel in the United States. The Fort Worth City Council recognized that with a unanimous proclamation of support for the State of Israel and our Jewish community.”

Texas state Rep. John McQueeney and former Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price were among the dignitaries who attended the event.

Ahavath Sholom Cantor Paul Dorman and Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Cantor Judy Greenfeld sang “Hatikvah,” and Ahavath Sholom Rabbi Andrew Bloom, himself an IDF veteran, said the “State of Israel is not just political, but covenantal, moral and essential to the Jewish people.”

In addition to serving as ambassador since last January, Leiter is the father of eight children, six of whom served in the Israel Defense Forces on the front lines of the war in Gaza.

His eldest child, Moshe Yedidya Leiter, was killed in combat on Nov. 10, 2023, in Gaza.

Moshe Leiter served for 15 years in the Israeli Air Force special force known as the Shaldag Unit — comparable to Delta Force in the United States. He was the father of six children when he was killed.

Leiter said the death of his son, and other IDF soldiers in combat, is proof that Israel conducts its military operations by going to great lengths to avoid civilian deaths and collateral damage.

“My son was given the assignment of finding a tunnel shaft in which terrorists were firing missiles into Ashkelon,” Leiter said. “When he found the shaft, he announced on military radio, ‘I found the shaft, Shabbat shalom.’ As he said that, the terrorists in that tunnel set off a massive explosion, and the roof came crashing down on the soldiers. If we had just bombed that area because we knew there was a tunnel there, they could be alive.”

Leiter said Israel is held to a different standard than any other military in the world, with misinformation serving as a continuation of longtime antisemitic tropes.

“We’ve been blood libeled,” Leiter said. “We don’t starve people, we don’t commit genocide and we don’t do ethnic cleansing. It’s no different than the accusation that we put blood in our matzahs or the claim that we poison wells. We don’t starve people even when they’re in enemy territory firing at us. And no other army in the world has had to contend with an area that is 24 miles long and eight miles wide, with 350 miles of terror tunnels underground. The entire area is civilian, with all of the 350 miles of terror underneath them and 30,000 terrorists above ground. Who has had to contend with anything like this besides the IDF? And when you repeat a lie often enough about the Jews, you’re going to see antisemitism go up and up and up.”

Leiter said the best way to counter antisemitism and misinformation is by “repeating the truth long enough and hard enough for it to ultimately sustain itself.”

“We’re indigenous to the Land of Israel, and we don’t need to apologize for being who we are,” Leiter said. “The Land of Israel and the People of Israel have gone together for 3,500 years. Zionism didn’t begin with Theodore Herzl. Theodore Herzl was able to see that it was time to brush off the dust that accumulated over 2,000 years of exile and reconstitute it. He was reconstituting the very beginning of Judaism.”

Israel’s ‘greatest generation’

Leiter explained to the audience how Israelis in their 20s and 30s prevented Oct. 7, 2023, from resulting in even greater death and destruction.

After Israel signed the historic Abraham Accords in 2020 to make “peace without conditions” with Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates, Iran was displeased by the development.

Knowing it could not defeat Israel in a conventional military battle, Iran organized “the Ring of Fire” and strengthened proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Assad regime in Syria to synchronize an attack on Israel from several directions.

“What happened on Oct. 7, al-Sinwar in Gaza decided not to wait for the others,” Leiter said. “There are all sorts of theories as to why, but he decided to jump the gun. Crazy hatred can do that. He sent his terrorists streaming across the border. They were slaughtering people in the most horrific ways imaginable. It was the perfect storm — our intel didn’t work. What saved us? Because if we didn’t have something save us, thousands more terrorists would have streamed into Kiryat Gat, Ashdod and maybe even Tel Aviv.”

Leiter said the young adults of Israel saved the country. He said his sons and sons-in-law were among those who responded.

“You talk about the greatest generation — this was the greatest generation since the Maccabees,” Leiter said. “You know what? They’re bigger than the Maccabees. The Maccabees were a small number. This is a whole generation of Israeli kids. They didn’t wait for the chain of command. The chain of command was broken. They just grabbed their personal weapons, jumped into their cars and went careening south. Thousands of these kids fought, and sometimes in hand-to-hand combat with these Hamas terrorists.”

Leiter said the attacks on Oct. 7 proved that Israel was not in a “border dispute” but in a war for its existence.

“By the grace of G-d, we were able to stave off this attack,” Leiter said. “The intention was and is to eliminate Israel. It tore the mask off the notion that all we have to do is give up a few kilometers here, a few kilometers there. That’s not the issue. They’re talking about destroying the State of Israel.”

In the war that followed, Israel weakened Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Assad regime in Syria to the point where Bashar Assad fled to seek asylum in Russia.

Both developments have opened up previously unimaginable diplomatic opportunities in Lebanon and Syria, as Iran lost key proxies in both nations.

Iran has seen widespread protests since December — something that Leiter attributes to the military action taken against Iran’s nuclear program by the United States and Israel last June.

“Right here in this holy sanctuary, say a prayer — together and by yourselves — for the success of the Iranian people,” Leiter said. “The Iranian people are rising up against a brutal tyranny. These people have been deprived of water, electricity, their freedom. They’re rising up and opposing this regime. Hopefully, they’ll get the support they need. This would not have been possible had the U.S. and Israel not operated together on June 12 with Operation Rising Lion and Midnight Hammer. It was the closest collaboration of our two countries in the annals of military history.”

Leiter credited the United States with developing a 20-point peace plan with the ultimate goal of disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza.

“It’s necessary for broader peace in the Middle East for it to be understood that Hamas cannot remain standing,” Leiter said.