While of course we would like it to be so, it doesn’t always happen that we at The Jewish Link receive total support for our own work, generous access to both private and public events and invitations into the most secure of locations for the highest-level of meetings. However, former MK Ofir Akunis, who began in his first diplomatic post serving as Israel’s consul general in New York in the spring of 2024, established that relationship with our team right from the start of his posting. We should add that New York is Israel’s largest consulate worldwide, and arguably the most influential.

Akunis joined me and Jewish Link Publisher Moshe Kinderlehrer in the publication’s recording studio for a podcast in the summer of 2024 and spoke honestly and sometimes emotionally about the trials that the Jewish state has faced since Oct. 7, and the terrible choices placed before the government, with an unreliable and bloodthirsty foe, Hamas, as well as all the other Iran-terror proxies that for many months following Oct. 7 surrounded and shelled Israel before their activities were curtailed by Israel’s targeted precision warfare.

He also shared details on the realities of his role in New York and his experiences meeting and working with hostage families, including the family of Edan Alexander, the only American hostage in Gaza still believed to be alive, at their home. Akunis recalled that his first official meeting after he got off the plane from Tel Aviv was right here in Tenafly, where he met with Alexander’s parents and grandmother.

Last summer we also had the opportunity to hear Akunis’ own uniquely Jewish story as the grandchild and child of Salonikan and Polish Jews; his grandfather arrived in the not-yet Jewish state from Greece in 1937 and his mother arrived from Poland in 1957. Akunis was born in Tel Aviv and started working for the Likud party (as did his grandfather) and PM Benjamin Netanyahu in 2004, and was elected to the Knesset in 2009. He served most recently as cabinet minister of science and technology (from 2015 to 2020 and also from 2022-2024), and has also served as minister of labor, social affairs and social services; as well as minister of regional cooperation.

Fast forward a year: In his office in Manhattan last month, our team was able to meet with Akunis and reflect on his first year in his very public-facing role. He spoke to us, frankly and matter-of-factly, about the complexities of his experiences and tasks in New York, the heartbreak and joy of the role interacting with the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, and the relationships he has begun to build in the communities under his jurisdiction, which include not only New York and New Jersey, but also Pennsylvania, Delaware and Ohio.

“We need to put the truth on the table all the time, and to say the truth very loudly. We can’t be quiet. I am doing this all the time,” he told us. Through the last year, Akunis has brought Israel’s story to elected officials as well as Jewish communities all around the regions, for Shabbat visits and presentations, college campuses, receptions, business and technology events, Yom Hazikaron and Yom HaShoah programs, the Salute to Israel Parade, Yom Ha’Atzmaut, the United Nations and in print, on television; and of course on social media where his account @ofirakunis is one of the most interesting and important Zionist voices in New York. To keep up with everything, follow @israelinnewyork too for the “official account” of the Israeli consulate in New York.

During our meeting, Akunis also shared his frank views about the last year and the toll that the war has taken on its citizens and allies around the world. Unfortunately, he said, “the war cannot be declared complete until Hamas is out of Gaza. Oct. 7 was ironclad proof that they cannot be there anymore. I am talking about monsters who killed with their own hands babies, burned people alive, kidnapped Holocaust survivors. It’s unthinkable.

“The Palestinians, which include the PA [Palestinian Authority] these days, still educate their children in their kindergartens that all the Jews are pigs and monkeys. These are official in books of the Palestinian Authority, including [Hitler’s infamous] ‘Mein Kampf’ book. And if we are pigs and monkeys, they need to kill us, even babies unfortunately.”

Akunis is clear that the entire PA and everyone in its control have a corrupt view of Jews and Jewish life, and this kind of basic educational training has formed a level of hate in young Palestinians that makes peace more improbable than ever. “That’s [because of] the educational system of the Palestinian Authority. And we saw this because our brave soldiers brought copies of ‘Mein Kampf’ to Israel and we saw it. You can’t bring someone to peace if their basis [of understanding] is ‘Mein Kampf,’” said Akunis.

He added that the country’s collective pain in relation to the hostages has been rooted in both the initial traumas of terror attacks before Oct. 7, then the Oct. 7 attack itself, and then every subsequent hostage deal, resulting in varying degrees of success or failure, depending on your point of view. “We are paying a very, very high price for every hostage deal. It was the deals with Hamas, even the Gilad Shalit deal, I can even talk about the Jibril deal in 1985 [a hostage deal negotiated by PM Shimon Perez which released 1,150 convicted mass murderers]. We released thousands of [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC)] terrorists who were then the creators and the backbone of the first Intifada.

“It’s a very high price but it’s a matter of Jewish morality to redeem captives,” Akunis explained.

Israel’s Consul General in New York ended our meeting with the government’s official position on Hamas and the war. “The only way they will surrender is we will need to continue and renew the war in the Gaza Strip. If they will not leave on their own they will have to be forced out.”

While the messages Akunis has shared with The Jewish Link over the past year have sometimes been difficult to hear, the stark and unvarnished truth, combined with Akunis’ clear dedication to working for the betterment of the Jewish state and people, is visible to everyone he meets. His ability to reach wide swathes of many if not all Jewish communities in the region has not gone unnoticed, and we look forward to a continued collaborative relationship as a media partner, advocating for, protecting and adding to the positivity and vibrancy of the Jewish people in our region.