Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke out on Wednesday against what he said was the distorted view of the Jewish state spread via the media, saying it resulted in people missing out on the “great contribution to humanity” that this “nation of huge values” provides.
Israel’s “ironclad bond with the United States of America [exists] because we drink from the same fountain: the values of the Bible,” Herzog said in an address to the 250 U.S. state legislators who recently paid a visit to Israel.
“What brought America to be so great is what makes Israel so great as well,” he added.
Speaking tonight at a gathering of 250 legislators from across the United States of America hosted by the @IsraelMFA, I spoke of my pride in Israel’s great contribution to humanity, and in the ironclad bond rooted in shared values between the US and Israel.
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) September 17, 2025
What makes the United… pic.twitter.com/yhW5Ux8Cc3
The largest-ever delegation of U.S. elected officials to the Jewish state planted 50 trees on Tuesday in the Negev Desert city of Ofakim—one for each state in America—in a symbolic gesture honoring the depth of the bond between Israel and the United States.
The lawmakers toured areas in southern Israel that were attacked by Hamas and other terrorist groups, as well as Gaza civilians, on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Two years after Oct. 7, we are still mourning, still rebuilding, and we are still fighting. But we are also planting for a future where Israel is safer, stronger and more vibrant than ever before,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told the lawmakers, who had gathered in a covered tent under the late-summer sun.
The bipartisan delegation, dubbed “50 States One Israel,” reaffirmed America’s unflinching commitment to and friendship with Israel despite the international opprobrium over the ongoing war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar welcomed the delegation at a lookout point in Samaria, near the Jewish community of Peduel, which, under suitable weather conditions, can overlook Israel’s coastal territory from Ashkelon to Haifa.
Speaking at “Israel’s Lookout,” the top diplomat explained what it would mean to impose a Palestinian state on the Jewish one. This would lead to “indefensible borders and an absence of minimal strategic depth for Israel,” he said Sa’ar.
“Our right to the land is intertwined with our right to national security,” he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday welcomed the delegation to Jerusalem, noting that there was an ongoing “active effort” to erode the ties between the two countries.
These efforts are “orchestrated by the same forces that supported Iran,” he continued, accusing China and Qatar of spearheading attacks on the Jewish state’s very legitimacy in the United States and on social media.
“We can break this siege, and we will,” the prime minister vowed.
