Ambassador Yechiel (Michael) Leiter

If vicious lies were told about you, wouldn’t you want to respond? That’s exactly what we did. The new #ModernBloodLibelBook is out now, online, free of charge. Read it and see the truth behind the web of lies. linktr.ee/israelinusa

This week’s Torah portion in Israel connects us with one of our forefathers, and reminds us that one of the most important jobs we have is keeping the flame of our people lit: through the biblical desert, and through modern day challenges alike. Shabbat shalom 🕯️🕯️

The latest @UNWatch report shines a light on a very troubling, but not surprising reality - any correlation between the @UN human rights committee and actual human rights, is coincidental at best. What lies beneath the surface is a system of corruption, conflicting interests and hate - used to harm Israel and the U.S.

Check it out!

This Memorial Day, we remember the men and women who have sacrificed everything for this great country, the United States of America. As we know in Israel only too well, freedom and prosperity must not be taken for granted. Today and everyday, we are grateful to those who gave their lives to protect and defend.

Ambassador @yechielleiter sat down with @wolfblitzer to deliver a message the world needs to hear - hateful libels against Israel and the Jewish people are not abstract or victimless. They have consequences. They have already cost lives. Without accountability, we will only see more violence. 🎥 @CNNSitRoom @CNN

As I told Amb. @yechielleiter here, we have to fight on every front, incl. the information warfare arena, if we value truth and have the moral clarity to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil, and see that standing with Israel is standing for Western civilization.

Welcome to Washington, Ambassador! I’m looking forward to working with you to strengthen Israel-Chile relations from here in the U.S. 🇮🇱🇨🇱🇺🇸

I condemn in the strongest terms Minister Mai Golan’s verbal attack on MK Gilad Kariv and on Reform Judaism in general. As an Orthodox Jew and as Israel’s representative to the United States I find her words disgusting and reprehensible, worthy of excoriation and rebuke. Theological, political, and ideological differences are fine, even necessary for a healthy people. But there is a line that cannot be crossed, it is a line that divides debate from hate and separates altruism from populism. Too many are crossing the line. Mai Golan’s statement is one of them. I will visit with leaders of the Reform movement soon, in person, to apologize on Israel’s behalf.

Tonight marks the beginning of the holiday of Shavuot—a holiday of community and remembrance. We stand as one people, and recall the day we received the Torah and all of its blessings. One year ago today, our community at the Embassy of Israel lost two of our beloved members—Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky—in a heinous terror attack. A year later, we remember the light they brought into our lives and we mourn the hole in our hearts that they left behind.

It was a pleasure joining @DanaPerino on @AmericaNewsroom today on FOX News to discuss the close coordination between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu on Iran, the ongoing nuclear negotiations, and Israel’s commitment to protecting its people. “If we’ll be asked to go back into kinetic activity with the United States side by side, shoulder to shoulder, wing to wing, we’re ready to do it.” Watch the full interview below foxnews.com/video/63961553…

Yesterday, IDF troops clashed with a terrorist who opened fire out of a church in the small Christian village of Al-Qouzeh, nestled among Hezbollah strongholds. A place of worship turned cynically into a killing site by terrorists and criminals, who took the life of an IDF officer. The village was evacuated and civilian casualties were prevented. The IDF continues its work to protect civilians as it dismantles terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon. Soldiers fight in complex and difficult conditions, against enemies who see to maximize collateral damage.

As @IsraeliPM Netanyahu and FM @gidonsaar have made clear, Itamar Ben Gvir’s reckless grandstanding is not representative of government policy. I am Israel’s top diplomat in the U.S., at the heart of our most important alliance. Ben Gvir’s antics take a sledgehammer to our diplomatic efforts while Israel’s enemies gleefully jump on every unfortunate nonsense to discredit and demonize. The provocateurs of the Flotilla charade were properly detained in accordance with international law and will be deported to their home countries. End of story.

Great to see my distinguished colleague @GeorgeDeek take on such an important role for the State of Israel, at the nexus of the Jewish-Christian relationship. Israel and the Jewish people are lucky to have you!

It was good to speak with @wolfblitzer on @CNNSitRoom. We discussed how hateful ideas become violent actions, and lead to the spilling of innocent blood. I also previewed my new booklet, “Manufactung a Modern Blood Libel,” which exposes the extent of lies against Israel in the media and elsewhere. Stay tuned for more on the book soon!

Last Hanukkah, @Ostrov_A lived through a personal blood libel. We met in February to talk about it, and about what can we do in the face of blood libels like these. Watch our full conversation 👇🏻

Here we go again: another Gaza flotilla. This is not a humanitarian mission, just a spectacle and provocation funded by Hamas. The truth is that humanitarian aid continues to enter the Gaza Strip daily. The flotilla organizers have no interest in helping the people of Gaza, their sole purpose is to try to delegitimize the State of Israel. It won’t happen.

Tune in tomorrow for my conversation with @Ostrov_A

Absurd Claims of Dog Rape and Genocide. I see a correlation between those who believe absurd claims like dogs were trained to rape Palestinians and those who believe and insist Israel committed genocide in Gaza. Both claims collapse under scrutiny and mountains of contrary evidence. One ignores basic physiology and science, including the reality that dogs cannot rape humans in the way being alleged. The other disregards the legal definition of genocide, which requires intent to destroy a people, alongside repeated public statements by Israeli political and military leaders after October 7 that the war was against Hamas, not the people of Gaza. It also requires evidence of actions taken to fulfill that intent, yet accusers dismiss Israel’s documented actions to mitigate civilian harm, facilitate aid, move civilians from combat zones, and even vaccinate Gaza’s population during active war under conditions no military has ever faced. It further ignores that even critics of Israel’s campaign have acknowledged civilian-to-combatant casualty ratios that are historically low for dense urban warfare against an entrenched enemy purposely embedded among civilians. What connects these beliefs is not evidence, but a double standard in how definitions, laws, reason, science, and even common sense are applied. Facts that would invalidate the accusation are dismissed because the conclusion comes first: Israelis are uniquely evil. And that demonization rarely stops with Israelis alone. It often extends to Jews broadly, regardless of any personal connection to the conflict. I see this less as a dispute over evidence and more as an effort to delegitimize Israel’s existence through accusations that do not withstand logical, factual, or legal scrutiny.

The 💎 @NoamBettan is repping Israel this weekend at the @eurovision final. So, as a fellow (less musically gifted) ambassador, I’ll do my part by voting for song #3 - good luck!