Israel’s new ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, started work this week ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled trip to Washington on Tuesday.
Leiter told JNS that the upcoming White House visit, the first of any foreign leader in the second Trump administration, is a symbol of the close ties between Washington and Jerusalem.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu’s historic visit to Washington will mark a significant moment in Israel-U.S. relations, setting a tone of close cooperation and friendship between the Israeli government and the Trump administration,” Leiter said.
“His visit will spur bilateral efforts to promote security and prosperity in the United States, Israel and the Middle East,” he added.
After officially starting work in Washington on Monday, Leiter introduced himself in a video on social media on Wednesday.
“I grew up in Scranton. I remember raising the American flag in the morning and taking it down in the evening before going home,” Leiter said in the video. “I moved to Israel when I was 18 and served in the IDF in the first Lebanese war.”
A rabbi with a doctorate in the history of political philosophy, Leiter is also a former political aide to Netanyahu and has a more politically active and right-wing background than did his predecessor, Michael Herzog, whose term overlapped with most of the Biden administration.
In the video, Leiter described learning about the death of his son, Moshe, a commander in the Shaldag commando unit of the Israeli Air Force who was killed in action in Gaza in November.
“I remember when the knock came on the door,” Leiter said in the video. “It was a late Friday night. I knew what the knock was before I opened the door.”
“He knew what was fighting for,” he added. “It’s important for us that the world understands what he was fighting for because this is a battle of good against evil.”
“Israel stands at the forefront of that battle,” he added, “and we’re saying: Yes, there is such a thing as evil, and we’re going to fight it.”
It is an honor and a privilege to serve as Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Israel’s most important and closest ally. I'm already rolling up my sleeves and getting to work. 🇮🇱🤝🏻🇺🇸@IsraelinUSA pic.twitter.com/htoVpyGewm
— Ambassador Yechiel (Michael) Leiter (@yechielleiter) January 29, 2025
