Chikli appears to dismiss US antisemitism envoy as ‘a nice lady’ and a leftist

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli appeared in an interview Thursday to dismiss US antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt as a “nice lady who deals with antisemitism,” and is a leftist.

Chikli’s comments came as he addressed speculation as to the identity of an unnamed Biden administration official who leveled harsh criticism at him in a recent interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Speaking to Israel’s Kan public broadcaster, Chikli said: “We’re talking, as far as I understand it, about a nice lady who deals with antisemitism,” apparently referring to US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Lipstadt.

“The lady in question is ultimately a person of the left, who didn’t like that I criticized George Soros,” Chikli told Kan, referring to the  Jewish-American billionaire who bankrolls multiple left-leaning causes and is the focus of many right-wing and antisemitic conspiracy theories.

The source “didn’t like that I criticized J Street. It’s a bureaucrat. It’s a very minor incident,” Chikli added.

Lipstadt is a world-renowned historian, author, and leading expert on the Holocaust and antisemitism.

Deborah Lipstadt during her Senate Foreign Relations nomination hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, February 8, 2022. (AP/Andrew Harnik)

In the JTA interview, the unnamed senior Biden official, described as someone who deals extensively with Israel, said that no Jewish community had hosted Chikli for a public event during his recent visit to the United States and that Chikli, the son of a Conservative rabbi, “does not understand the American Jewish Diaspora.”

They also said that the Biden administration is aware of Chikli’s past remarks criticizing gay pride parades, the left-leaning Jewish lobby group on Israel J Street, and Reform Jews, and that those remarks will have “consequences.”

Chikli later sought to clarify that he did not believe it was Lipstadt herself who had criticized him, telling the Times of Israel that it was a “junior bureaucrat working near Lipstadt,” and adding that he has “the utmost appreciation and respect for Ambassador Lipstadt.”

Lipstadt later told the Times of Israel that she was not behind the interview and lamented that Chikli had made no effort to contact her.

“After my meeting with Minister Chikli, I spoke to no media outlets or reporters and made no public comments about him or our conversation.  The minister has my contact information and could have ascertained that fact.  I am sorry he did not,” she said.

The incident is the latest development that underscores tensions between Israel’s conservative, right-wing government and the relatively progressive administration of US President Joe Biden, which many American Jews support.

Nevertheless, Chikli told the Times of Israel he believed he was owed an apology from the Biden administration for the content of the interview.

In the JTA interview, the unnamed source said that Chikli “did not have a single public meeting with the American Jewish community” during his visit to the United States earlier this month. The source also accused Chikli of giving the middle finger to Jewish protesters who demonstrated against him.

Chikli disputes both claims.

“We are owed an apology for the lies made up about us in the interview,” Chikli said.

Chikli, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, has criticized what he regards as displays of “vulgarity” at the Tel Aviv gay pride parade and called the dovish lobby group J Street, which says it is both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian, “a hostile organization that harms the interests of the State of Israel,” a common view on the right. Last year he said that Reform Jews “are going back to their roots in Germany of anti-Zionism and anti-nationalism.”

A photo showing him holding his middle finger and several other fingers up to the corners of his mouth at the Israel Parade in New York City this month circulated on social media and news sites as proof he had flipped off protesters against him. Chikli and others said he was merely gesturing for his detractors to smile.

.@AmichaiChikli to the pro-democracy protesters across the barriers ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/g69jsXOf58

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) June 4, 2023

Chikli also told The Times of Israel on Thursday that he’d “lost track of how many” Jewish communities he’d met in the United States. Chikli named meetings with the Jewish federations of New York and Toronto; with security officials from Jewish communities; and his speaking at an open-to-the-public event at the Altneu synagogue in Manhattan.

The Biden administration source quoted by JTA “is echoing fake news,” Chikli said. “I find this intervention outrageous because it’s blatant interference in matters outside the scope of US-Israeli bilateral ties,” Chikli said.