According to an individual familiar with the call, the ambassador firmly pushed back against Eliyahu’s remarks, which he said were misleading. “Many people are working day and night to ensure that Gaza’s residents receive food and humanitarian aid,” Leiter reportedly said during what was described as a sometimes confrontational conversation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a public statement distancing his administration from Eliyahu’s remarks. “Minister Amichay Eliyahu does not speak for the government I lead. He is not a member of the Security Cabinet that determines the conduct of the war,” Netanyahu posted on his official X (formerly Twitter) account. “His views are his own. He opposed the hostage release agreement and chose to resign. This government’s policy is clear and united. His statements do not represent it.”
In a Thursday morning appearance on Kol Barama radio, Minister Eliyahu had also remarked, “We don’t need to be concerned about hunger in the Strip. We have completely lost our minds.”
Ambassador Leiter addressed the controversy on social media, issuing a post on X in which he reiterated that Eliyahu’s stance is not shared by the current Israeli leadership. “The exact opposite is true,” Leiter wrote. “Despite the enormous difficulties of providing humanitarian aid to the non-combatant population of Gaza, we have done so with determination and commitment. The PM has stated that, ‘There will be no starvation in Gaza. Period.’”
Leiter went on to characterize the minister’s words as both inaccurate and harmful. “The quotes attributed to Minister Eliyahu are wrong, foolish and totally unrepresentative of the government and people of Israel,” he wrote. “Our objective is, and will remain, the total defeat of Hamas, which serves death and destruction, murder and mayhem, on Israelis and Gazans, while providing humanitarian assistance to non-combatant Gazans.”
“Our objective is, and will remain, the total defeat of Hamas, which serves death and destruction, murder and mayhem, on Israelis and Gazans, while providing humanitarian assistance to non-combatant Gazans.” Mr. Ambassador, if you are looking to provide humanitarian assistance (just) to non- combatant Gazans, then one truck should be enough and probably more than enough…the whole Gaza is (was) one terrorist hub, just some there are more active terrorists then some others.The worst thing Mr. Ambassador is to be in denial. You know the true fact and so why deny it…
Such foolish remarks, by these people like Eliyahu and Smotrich.
It seems that these religious zionists who are foolishly vocalising and publicising their desire to see the death of Gazans are victims of religious zionism’s erroneous idea that we are no longer in galus. For that reason, they feel we can do and say whatever we like, and we don’t need to worry about infuriating the non-Jews around us.
They forget that not only is the state of israel NOT the end of galus and NOT the end of diplomacy with the nations of the world, but that roughly half the world’s Jews still live outside of Eretz Yisroel and DO still understand what diplomacy with non-Jews means.