“The fountains of America, of American life, are based on biblical values, just like ours [in the Jewish state],” Israeli President Isaac Herzog told Politico in a long-format interview published on Saturday.
The president was asked whether he was concerned about a growing skepticism regarding Israel in the U.S., especially among the younger generation.
“I believe that the underlying fountain that we all drink from is the same,” Herzog answered, adding that he was following the anti-Israel trends permeating American youth “very closely.”
He pointed an accusing finger at social media platforms such as TikTok that present “a very shallow discourse of the current situation.”
The big picture is not conveyed, he stressed. “Is Israel a strategic ally? Yes. Is Israel contributing to American national interests, security interests? Absolutely yes. Is Israel a beacon of democracy in the Middle East? Absolutely yes,” he added.
Herzog said that he “in no way [is] writing off millions of American citizens. I respect every American citizen, and I respect American democracy, and I respect the debate. All I’m asking is for fair reporting, not fake reporting, and not something superficial. You cannot just [accept] a TikTok message, which you know immediately blames Israel, without understanding what’s behind it. We are operating in self-defense according to international law and we are trying to defend our citizens.”
The Israeli president said that the Jewish state can improve in how it explains its actions. “However, we are also trying to explain to everybody that sometimes it’s kind of a lost battle, because there are billions and tens of billions of dollars poured into this brainwashing machine which doesn’t want to tell the real truth.”
But Israel will keep telling the truth, he continued. “We did not seek this war. We did not want this war,” he said, referring to the two-year campaign against Hamas in Gaza after the latter led the deadliest single-day attack on the country in the state’s history on Oct. 7, 2023, slaughtering some 1,200 people in the northwestern Negev and kidnapping 251 others into the Strip.
Asked whether Israel could survive without U.S. support, Herzog said: “I utterly believe in the alliance between Israel and the United States. I think every president who sits in the chair in the Oval Office sees it for himself and knows the real truth. The issue is that we have to bring the region to understand that war is futile and the future is peace.”
‘Israel minted in New York DNA’
Herzog is set to depart for New York City on Sunday for a two-day trip, focusing on the challenges facing American Jews amid rising antisemitism, his office said.
He was asked by Politico about the electoral victory of anti-Israel Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and whether reactions from Israel were overblown.
“I lived in New York in my formative years,” replied the president. “I love the Big Apple. I love New York. I’m extremely bothered by the statements of Mayor-elect Mamdani. The rights of Jews, of the Jewish people, for self-determination and for independence, do not depend on Zohran Mamdani.”
Herzog’s father, Chaim Herzog, who served as ambassador to the U.N. and later as Israel’s sixth president, defended Israel together with then- U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, as both objected to the General Assembly resolution in 1975 equating Zionism with racism, the current Israeli president said.
“My father stood up in front of the U.N. General Assembly and tore up the resolution, saying that for us, the Jewish people, this is no more than a piece of paper, and we will treat it as such. He also spoke about people throughout the ages, leaders who negated the Jewish people’s rights, and they’ve all disappeared, and their views disappeared,” Herzog said.
Deflecting a call from the interviewer to invite the incoming New York mayor to Israel, Herzog stressed that “Mamdani should understand that in his own city, there are so many people who have Israel minted in their DNA, in their love of both America and Israel. He should study better and understand better their viewpoints and not show such disgust and hate.”
