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Outgoing Israeli ambassador urges successor to continue his approach: ‘Talk to everybody across the aisle’
Eroding bipartisan support for Israel among lawmakers is a chief concern for Ambassador Michael Herzog, who is being replaced by Yechiel Leiter
As Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog wraps up his tenure in Washington this week, the diplomat and former peace negotiator is thinking about how he kept the peace on Capitol Hill — by talking to almost anyone, from the left to the right, about U.S. support for Israel.
Herzog always held bipartisanship as his North Star. (Except when it came to the Squad; he thought talking to them would be a “waste of time.”)
But as he prepares to leave Washington, Herzog is worried about the increasingly leftward tilt of some Democrats, and the once-extreme policy ideas that have become normalized during the Israel-Hamas war following the Oct. 7 terror attacks.
“I’m concerned by the fact that this very discourse of whether or not to condition aid to Israel has become part of the political bloodstream here in America,” Herzog told Jewish Insider in an interview on Sunday. “I’m happy to say that the majority of legislators voted with us, but this is an ongoing challenge.”
Eroding bipartisan support for Israel among lawmakers is a chief concern for Herzog, even when Washington’s focus is elsewhere, like on the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who will take office on Monday with a Republican House and Senate to back him up. (Herzog will be attending Trump’s inauguration.)
He urged his successor, Yechiel Leiter, a former aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to continue his strategy of talking to everyone — including the Democrats, even if they currently lack power in Washington. Herzog is not viewed as a particularly political figure; he was appointed to the job in 2021 by the Naftali Bennett-Yair Lapid unity government, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kept him in the post when he returned to office in 2022. He has been preaching bipartisanship from the minute he arrived in Washington.
“Talk to everybody across the aisle and [do] not focus just on one side of the aisle,” Herzog said on Sunday, relaying advice he has already given Leiter. “This is hugely important, to talk, to listen, to Israel’s point of view, but to cast a net as broad as possible, and not just talk to those who are our natural friends, but go out of your comfort zone and talk to everybody.”
Those conversations often aren’t pleasant, Herzog acknowledged. They take patience. They require listening to arguments whose very essence many Israelis reject.
“It was a challenge to conduct some of the conversations with certain senators to the left, who forgot who started the war, why Hamas started the war, what happened on Oct. 7,” Herzog said. “All they were interested in was talking about the other side of the picture, which is what’s happening in Gaza.”
Herzog spent time on Capitol Hill last year trying to sway senators against voting to restrict U.S. military assistance to Israel. While Congress never came close to actually placing conditions on the aid, 19 Democratic senators voted in November in favor of a measure that sought to block the transfer of certain weapons to Israel, a high-water-mark for congressional skepticism of Israel.
“I fought very hard against it,” said Herzog. “I told everybody who spoke to me, ‘Don’t inject your frustration or criticism of Israel into this area, the provision of weapons to an ally, a democracy, that’s in the middle of a war.’”
Shirin Herzog, the ambassador’s wife, called Israel’s political naysayers “background noise” created by a “relatively limited number of people,” contrasting them to “the majority of the population in the U.S. [who] are supporting Israel,” she said. “They love Israel. They would like Israel to succeed and to remain an important ally of the U.S.”
Ambassador Herzog, ever the advocate for bipartisanship, had strong praise for both Trump and outgoing President Joe Biden, particularly related to the cease-fire and hostage-release deal that went into effect on Sunday.
“I want to note the really exceptional cooperation between the outgoing and incoming administrations on this issue,” said Herzog.
Looking back, he praised Biden for his “warm and emotional attitude” toward Israel, even if he sometimes disagreed with Biden’s policies.
“It doesn’t mean that we agreed on everything. There were conflicting views on some of the issues on how to conduct the war. But his basic attitude was supportive,” added Herzog, who traveled to Israel with Biden in July 2022 and in October 2023, days after the Oct. 7 attacks. “On balance, I think this administration deserves credit for the support they gave us during the toughest time in Israel’s history.”
Still, Herzog credited Trump’s endorsement of the recent negotiations as a crucial factor in their success. “I think the fact that President Trump decided to be part of this also played into their calculations and also convinced them to move forward,” he said of Hamas.
He did not outright dispute that Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steven Witkoff, had pressured Netanyahu to agree to a deal to which some members of his coalition had in the past objected. Instead, Herzog quibbled with the definition.
“I would be very careful in using the word ‘pressure,’” said Herzog. “It comes across as if someone was bending our hand against our own interest, and the framework … is essentially an Israeli framework. So it was in our interest.”
Herzog said the incoming Trump administration is “absolutely committed” to the cease-fire deal, and he expects them to make sure it is implemented “to the end of this stage and possibly the next stage.” Negotiations for the second phase, which will include a permanent withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the return of all remaining living hostages, will begin 16 days after the cease-fire began.
Whenever Biden has discussed the cease-fire deal, including in a brief speech on Sunday morning, he has mentioned it as a starting point for the eventual creation of a Palestinian state. Herzog, however, said he expects Trump to speak about the prospect of a Palestinian state very differently.
“I think he’s well aware of the way Israelis feel about this issue following Oct. 7, because most Israelis, they see it from a security point of view,” said Herzog. Many in Israel, he added, view a Palestinian state as an “illegitimate child of Oct. 7.” If Trump does talk about a Palestinian state, “it’ll be in the context of a Saudi deal,” Herzog suggested.
When Herzog arrived in Washington in late 2021, promoting the Abraham Accords was a big part of the job description. It was only a year after Israel had normalized ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. Herzog became one of the biggest boosters for the Accords in Washington, particularly at the start of the Biden presidency, when the president’s administration was reticent to discuss Trump’s signature foreign policy achievement.
The public work promoting the Accords largely came to a halt immediately after Oct. 7. The partner nations “were reluctant to go public with Israel and all joint projects,” said Herzog. Multilateral forums convened by the U.S. were “frozen.”
But now, with some hindsight, Herzog feels confident saying the Accords made it through the war. “The relations between Israel and new partners have withstood the test of this war. They all maintain diplomatic and practical relations with us,” Herzog said. A big question, though, is what it will take for Saudi Arabia to sign on.
An Israel-Saudi deal is a “door [that] has been open for a while,” said Herzog. He hopes that Trump’s presidency will be when the two countries finally normalize ties, although he said a “period of calm” is needed “for the dust to settle” after the cease-fire goes into effect. (Herzog’s counterparts in the Arab nations with which Israel does have relations tell him that young people in their countries have been “radicalized” by the war in Gaza.)
Trump’s return to office comes with “opportunities that were not there before,” with Iran weakened following the war. “I’m very hopeful that both our governments will work on pursuing these opportunities. I know that this is a feeling in Jerusalem as well,” said Herzog.
At a farewell party last week, a bipartisan cadre of lawmakers celebrated Herzog. Where else would Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the 81-year-old firebrand progressive who once chaired the House Appropriations Committee, get invited to a party to mingle with Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the 81-year-old firebrand conservative chair of the powerful House Rules Committee?
After Trump’s inauguration, there will be fewer places in Washington for such meetings to take place. Herzog has less than a week left to stake his claim.