Does it make sense for the government of Israel to appoint a minister of Diaspora affairs and minister of social equality who doesn’t know much about the Diaspora and doesn’t subscribe to “social equality?” The Netanyahu government seems to think so and has appointed Amichai Chikli to the two ministry portfolios. But an increasing number of people ― including some American Jewish leaders and some members of Congress ― disagree and have expressed concern about Chikli’s ability to fulfill his job to strengthen connections with Jewish communities that he doesn’t know or understand.
Based on reports of interactions with Chikli during his recent visits to New York and Washington, D.C., Chikli came across as intelligent and personable but remarkably ignorant about Diaspora Jewish life. He is also highly opinionated, quick-triggered and confrontational. All of which has many wondering why Netanyahu thinks Chikli is the right person to lead the effort to win over a Diaspora community that is largely skeptical about Israel’s right-wing government. Nor can they understand why Chikli was selected to serve as the face of social equality and tolerance when he has a history of deriding minority groups within Israel, including gay Jews and Israeli Arabs, and demeaning non-Orthodox Jews.
Chikli began his Knesset service in 2021 as a member of the right-wing Yamina party. Yamina kicked him out of the party after he voted 754 times against the Bennett-Lapid government that Yamina joined, because he was so offended that the governing coalition included a left-wing party and an Arab party. Chikli then joined Netanyahu’s Likud party and serves as part of the Likud Knesset delegation.
Very few people in the Diaspora knew of Chikli before his ministry appointments. But once his views became more widely known, concern began to develop regarding his fitness to serve. For example, eyebrows were raised when Chikli accused former Prime Minister Yair Lapid of “spearheading” the anti-Israel BDS movement because Lapid criticized far-right Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir. He generated concern when he called the Palestinian Authority a “neo-Nazi entity” and urged Israel to “examine alternatives to [the PA’s] existence.” And alarm bells sounded when he referred to left-leaning J Street as a “hostile organization that harms the interests of the state of Israel,” and accused philanthropist George Soros, a J Street supporter, of “financing the most hostile organizations to the Jewish people and the state of Israel.” Chikli is also disdainful of Reform Judaism and the politics of American liberals. He says, “I’m not woke,” and has railed against “progressive ideology” and LGBTQ rights, including labeling the yearly Tel Aviv Pride parade a “disgraceful vulgarity.”
During his recent visit to Washington, Chikli met with a group of Jewish congressional Democrats. The meeting did not go well. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), one of the leading members of the group, declined to discuss exactly what happened at the meeting but said in a statement: “ I fear Minister Chikli’s cavalier approach to the Diaspora community’s concerns ― including those of members of Congress ― undermines our work to uphold the hard-fought bonds between our nations.”
Chikli’s hostility, hyperbole and hot head are a problem. Which begs the question: What was Netanyahu thinking in making this guy minister of Diaspora affairs?
