As far as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leftist critics are concerned, the last thing Israel needs is someone representing the country abroad who enthusiastically supports his policies, and is ready to do intellectual and verbal combat with the government’s opponents. If that doesn’t make sense, then welcome to Israeli politics. That basic conundrum explains the firestorm that has greeted the floating of the idea that Netanyahu might name veteran journalist and current adviser Caroline Glick to the post of consul general in New York City. Glick was a senior contributing editor at JNS and hosted “The Caroline Glick” show on JNS TV before being named as Netanyahu’s international affairs adviser in February 2025.
In many ways, she is an ideal candidate for such a post. She was born, raised and educated (at Columbia and Harvard universities) in the United States. As a result, she speaks unaccented idiomatic American English, unlike most of Israel’s diplomats. After making aliyah, she served in the Israel Defense Forces, where she worked as coordinator of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority during the period of the Oslo Accords. After becoming a journalist, she was embedded with the U.S. Army during the invasion of Iraq and worked as a frontline war correspondent. Since then—and outside of a brief stint running for the Knesset in 2019—she’s been covering and commenting on the issues that are at the forefront of Israeli public policy and diplomacy.
Moreover, as someone who worked with Netanyahu for a while in the 1990s and then again in the last year, she understands the prime minister’s views as well as anyone. So, what’s the problem with sending her to represent Israel in the city with the largest Jewish population outside of the Jewish state? The answer, according to the scathing comments published in recent days in outlets like The Times of Israel and Haaretz, is that her views are in line with those of the government she would represent and the voters who elected it. According to both of those publications, which are bitterly opposed to that government, sending Glick to New York would offend “progressive” Jews. As far as the far-left Haaretz is concerned, Netanyahu is “spitting in American Jews’ faces” by even thinking of such an appointment.
...What Israel and American Jewry need now is not someone who will try to make friends with Mamdani or be comfortable at a soirée with editors of the Times or liberal Jews who continue foolishly to look to both for leadership. An Israeli representative who will take on the intersectional left and the antisemitic right with equal boldness is what is required right now. So is someone who will fearlessly speak directly to ordinary Jews and not just to the Manhattan elites. And that is exactly what Caroline Glick would do if given this opportunity. (Ed note: An excellent article from Jonathan S. Tobin.) (Read More)
