Israel’s newly appointed Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar. (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – In 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told attendees at a Christian Media Summit organized by his office that he would like to create a new position: Ambassador to the Christian World.
With more than two billion Christians in the world – and some 600 million Evangelical Christians who are especially supportive of Israel and the Jewish people – Netanyahu said he believed much more needed to be done to educate and mobilize that support.
I was there and it was a very encouraging moment that, as I recall, received a standing ovation.
In 2021, Ron Dermer, who was then-Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and is now the minister of Strategic Affairs, said publicly he believed that “Israel does not spend enough time engaging Evangelicals” and encouraged a dramatic expansion of outreach to Christians overall.
WHAT EXACTLY WOULD SUCH AN AMBASSADOR DO?
With the massive turbulence in Israeli politics and society over the past six years – multiple rounds of national elections, the COVID pandemic, the divisions over judicial reform, and now war and terrorism on all sides – Netanyahu and his team have never been able to implement the idea.
But it’s a good one.
A very good one, in fact.
That’s why I’ve been writing for years – in 2019, and in 2021, and again in 2023 – to urge Israeli leaders to make it happen and to describe what that role might look like.
To be clear, it’s not a role that I’m interested in – there are better and more qualified Israelis who could do it – but I believe that with so much of the world turning against Israel and the Jewish people, it is more important than ever that Israel has just such an ambassador.
So, as I sat down with Gideon Sa’ar yesterday for his first interview with any U.S. or Israeli media outlet since becoming foreign minister last week, I asked him what he thought about the idea.
WHAT DID SA’AR TELL ME?
“About six years ago or so, Prime Minister Netanyahu was speaking at a Christian Media summit and somebody asked him, and he said, ‘You know what, yes, that’s a good idea, I would love to appoint an ambassador specifically to the Christian world,’” I began.
Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar with All Israel News Editor-in-Chief and host of The Rosenberg Report, Joel C. Rosenberg (Credit: All Israel News staff)
“What’s your view of that?” I asked Sa’ar. “Would it make sense to appoint someone who’s specifically an Israeli to speak specifically to the Christian world?”
I noted that while the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., the United Kingdom, or other countries certainly meet with – and speak to – Christians, it’s not the main part of their portfolio.
Mostly, they focus on the national government they’ve been sent to and the Jewish community in that country.
Sa’ar, who has built warm ties with Christians for the 18 years I’ve known him, immediately liked the idea.
“It should be considered, and I will consider that,” he said.
He quickly added that “the most important thing is to understand that Christian believers are natural allies and supporters of the State of Israel.”
Sa’ar said that pro-Israel Christians “can be a great asset in our struggle for our rights, and not only in the U.S., but also in Brazil, or in South Korea, and a lot of places.”
That’s why, Sa’ar said, he plans to make outreach to Christians a priority for the Foreign Ministry now that he is in this role.
“I will surely emphasize this issue to the ministry under me in order to be implemented,’ he told me, saying that he and his team will closely examine “what is the right structure to do it,” and thus whether appointing an ambassador to the Christian world – and building a team around that person – is the right way forward.
SA’AR PLANNING AGGRESSIVE, CREATIVE NEW EFFORTS TO ADVANCE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY WORLDWIDE
What’s more, Sa’ar explained to me that in his agreement with Netanyahu to take the job, the two agreed that the foreign minister needs an additional $145 million in 2025 to become much more creative and proactive at defending Israel in the media, including on social media.
“We see eye to eye,” he said, that this is part of the task of the foreign minister.
Joel C. Rosenberg interviews Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar for The Rosenberg Report (Credit: All Israel News staff)
“I put on the table a very important thing that I want to lead,” Sa’ar noted. “A different approach with a significant budget for public diplomacy to battle for the minds of so many people” who are only hearing “lies against Israel time and again in world media. “
The additional budget, he said, will “allow me to lead a much more strong battle for the name of Israel, for the interests of Israel, and our values around the world.”
“It’s not only diplomatic work, which is crucial always,” he said, “but also this work in world media and social [media] networks.”
“Because when you have public opinion against you in a democracy, in Western democracies, it’s hard for leaders to work against it. So, we have this problem in some of the countries in Europe that the leadership want to go [with Israel on a particular issue], but the public opinion influenced by the media and the social is somewhere else.”
“We have to close this gap and we will have to work very hard at this.”
More of my exclusive interview with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will soon air on THE ROSENBERG REPORT, my prime-time TV show on TBN, next week.
But given the importance of what Sa’ar told me yesterday – regarding the Iranian nuclear threat and his views about reaching out more to the Christian community around the world – ALL ISRAEL NEWS wanted to publish these excerpts immediately.
