Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of Israeli-American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a speech on Monday commemorating the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel. His remarks at an apolitical American Jewish Committee event appeared to catch the AJC by surprise.
In his 22-minute speech at Sixth & I, a historic synagogue in Washington, D.C., the elder Dekel-Chen accused the Israeli premier of “childish” press conferences and “inflammatory speeches” rather than good-faith negotiations for the hostages’ release, although he noted diplomacy with Hamas is a “deal with the devil.”
“Prime Minister Netanyahu only amplifies the ugliest parts of Israeli politics,” Dekel-Chen told the audience of about 200, including ambassadors and other senior diplomats from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Chile, the European Union, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Togo, Ukraine and Uruguay, per the AJC.
Representatives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, Japanese American Citizens League, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Washington National Cathedral also attended.
Dekel-Chen told those assembled that Israel’s leaders are “unwilling to take any accountability for the situation in which Israel finds itself and unable to offer a workable vision for its future.”
He traced what he called the Jewish state’s “national crisis of faith” to the government’s pre-Oct. 7 push for judicial reform, which generated mass protests, and resumed, he said, “with even greater urgency—with the popular understanding that the actions of our government clearly showed they did not prioritize the return of the hostages beyond lip service.”
Christian Zionists must apply more pressure on the U.S. and Israeli governments to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage deal, Dekel-Chen said, adding that “support for Israel does not always mean blind support for its government.” He also said that moderate Arab states, progressive Jews and other Palestinian advocates must push Hamas to broker a deal, and that the terror group must be removed from power.
“They need to expend at least as much effort in leveraging Hamas to do the right thing despite itself—not for the good of the hostages, but for the good of the Palestinian people and the people in Gaza,” Dekel-Chen said.
He called a two-state solution a “non-starter,” though left-leaning groups, like J Street, and the Biden administration continue to call for it amid the war.
“Not because I don’t believe it, but simply because it’s a non-starter in terms of where Israeli society is today,” Dekel-Chen said.
The American Jewish Committee considers itself an apolitical organization, and it has not been known to criticize Netanyahu during the war.
“I realize that my words today perhaps are not exactly what you were expecting,” Dekel-Chen said. “I apologize to the AJC if some of it seems perhaps a little inappropriate on this solemn day.”
Ted Deutch, the nonprofit’s CEO and a former Democratic congressman from Florida, confirmed from the podium that Dekel-Chen’s “was not the speech we were expecting.”
Israel’s strength after Oct. 7 lies in its unity, Deutch told attendees.
“We talk often about the power of Israel’s democracy, the many voices within Israel,” he said. “We acknowledged that your voice is one of many voices, and we’re grateful you chose to be here today.”
‘A nation in trauma’
Doug Emhoff, who is married to U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, led a prayer for peace. “May we see the day when the war and bloodshed cease, when a great peace will embrace the world, nation will not threaten nation and the human family will not again know war,” he said.
Emhoff didn’t offer further remarks, although he spoke later in the day at the vice-presidential residence when he and Harris planted a ceremonial pomegranate tree.
The U.S. State Department’s antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt read a message from President Joe Biden to mark the occasion, and Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, said at the memorial that Oct. 7 was a “watershed event.”
Hamas’s attack divides history “to before and after, and Israel before and after are two different countries,” said Herzog, whose brother is the Israeli president. “At 6:28 a.m. on that dark Saturday, the earth shook, the world froze and our lives changed.”
The Israeli diplomat said that the ensuing war is “a human story,” noting the deaths that have followed in Gaza and Lebanon, the launch sites for attacks against Israel.
“We are a nation in trauma. Our wounds are open, and they will not heal until we return our hostages, until we bring them back home,” Herzog said. “It is a moral and a human obligation.”
Herzog also zeroed in on Iran and its terror proxies.
Another part of the war story is “how we are gradually turning the tide, restoring our deterrence, dismantling the Iranian ring of fire that they built around us and weakening that axis,” the Israeli diplomat said. “With this come also opportunities amid the big, big tragedy of this war.”