The leader of one of Israel’s largest U.S. diplomatic regions came to Salt Lake City last week with a simple message at a complicated time: “Fight for truth and learn about the truth,” said Israel Bachar, Consul General of Israel in Los Angeles, in an interview with the Deseret News.
Bachar, who oversees Utah and six other states in the southwest region of the United States, met with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox as well as other government and community leaders and is performing his duties as hostilities continue between the state of Israel and Hamas.
It also comes at a time of unrest on college campuses, where Jewish students have said they feel unsafe, and inactions (or actions) have put some college presidents under scrutiny, including at the University of Pennsylvania, where president M. Elizabeth Magill was forced to resign following comments on Capitol Hill and criticism both on and off campus.
Seeking truth, Bachar said, gives the best chance of cutting through misinformation and understanding the conflict that has displaced more than 80% of Gaza’s population, according to the United Nations. Hamas, designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States, invaded Israel on Oct. 7, killing citizens and taking hostages. It prompted a swift and deadly response by Israel.
“Our state has enjoyed a long and productive relationship with Israel and our hearts ache to see the region now engulfed in conflict,” Cox said, in meeting with Bachar. “We continue to condemn the unspeakable horror unleashed by Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7. We stand with our Jewish community by insisting that there is absolutely no place for antisemitism in our state or anywhere in the world. We mourn both the Israeli and Palestinian civilians who have lost their lives since the outbreak of the violence, and we pray for a quick resolution of the conflict.”
The following conversation between Bachar and Deseret News Executive Editor Doug Wilks has been edited for length and clarity:
Deseret News: What is your main role in the United States?
Israel Bachar: I am the Consul General for Southwest Pacific Center in charge of seven states, so the highest diplomatic official in the region.
First and foremost, I need to deal with officials, you know, congressmen, senators, the state level, the mayors of the big cities. So that’s my No. 1 job. No. 2 job is we have a very large Jewish community in California and in the region. So we are in touch with them. And there’s also a huge Israeli community. And we’re trying to fortify and fosters the connection between Israelis in these communities and the American communities, of course, to maintain the relationship, increase the business activities in the region and in Israel. And of course, we also want to increase the relationship with the academy. I think that we need to increase the number of people who are coming to study here in America at American universities. And I would love to see more Americans coming to study in Israel. So we have diplomacy. We have community, we have economy. So these are the three main areas that we’re dealing with on a daily basis.
DN: How are you finding the reception in Utah? Are you finding support for Israel?
IB: Definitely the feeling here in Utah is very supportive of Israel. I think there is very much more clarity among the youth in understanding the battle between good and evil, and people understand what Israel is really dealing with right now in the war against Hamas, which is encouraging.
You know, Utah is also kind of a holy state, the holy country, and it has kind of a holy spirit, has great connection to the Bible and into the history. And I think it has an influence definitely on people’s views. So we’re grateful for the support and for the moral clarity of the people and their actions. People came to me after a meeting that we had at Zions Bank, and they want to help Israel, they want to come to missions in Israel ... they ask where to invest in distressed communities in the southern border. So you see a lot of goodwill, but it’s also very much based in real action, not only in words, but in real actions.
DN: Why has there been an increase in antisemitism? Do you see a reason for that?
IB: I don’t see a reason for an antisemitism at all. Never. We experienced this disease, probably from the time of the Bible ... we are experiencing this phenomenon. So there’s no time for it. And of course, there are forces that are pro Palestinian that want to undermine our rights for the country in Israel. And they have Jew hatred. ... So there is no reason to be anti-Semite, but I think the Arab world, not all but some parts of the Arab world, go through radicalization that is based in Iran, that they disseminate this kind of hatred.
DN: Do you have a message for America and for Utahns?
IB: First of all, to stick to the truth, the truth is our best tool for fighting evil. And when you know the fundamentals of the strife, and the conflict, you understand that the Israelites are still reasonable, many times different offers to the Palestinian to create peace, and they will reject it. And it happens during President Clinton, President Obama. And the reason that they didn’t want to sign the deal with us, it was because they were not willing to sign on the clause that says that they recognize the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish nation, the Jewish people. They were not willing to sign it. So if you are not willing to end the conflict with us, you cannot ask us to give you part of the land. So that’s why we don’t have peace right now, between us and Palestinians. That’s No. 1. No. 2, there is radicalization.
DN: So is your solution to eliminate Hamas and have a different Palestinian leadership over Gaza?
IB: Phase No. 1 is to eradicate Hamas period. We first need to take the cancer out, and then let the healing process begin. What’s going to be the healing process, we need to wait and see what our positive forces in the region will be willing to come and help in managing this area. There’s no definitive answer to it right now. But I think these options will come to fruition.
DW: Is there a way to do that without hurting the civilian population? That is a point of concern.
IB: So I’ll tell you, first of all, you know, the American administration looked carefully on a daily basis, whether we keep the international law, and we do. ... However, there are other nations or forces that want to accuse us that we don’t. Let me give you an example, the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. We risked our soldiers lives to send incubators to the hospital, because we want to save their babies. And, on the contrary, they are doing exactly the opposite. ... That’s what they are doing. So we prove once again and again, every day, there is humanitarian aid that goes into Gaza, which is monitored by the Americans. And so far, the vast majority of the requests of the administration were answered by us on the humanitarian issue.
DN: If you have one message that you wish to give to our readers, to America, what is that message?
IB: Fight for the truth, and learn about the truth. Because that’s the best (way) to understand conflict. And to remember that Israel and America don’t look at it as a friendship, it is a family. America is a family to us. And if we look at interpersonal connections — and I’m one example of it — between the two nations, it’s pretty much amazing.
American families live in Israel, Israelis are living in America. Our kids live in America, they live in Israel. It’s really like a family and it feels like a family and you know, you test families in a time of distress. And each time that Israel was under distress America came and stood forward to help Israel, and Israel admires America.