Israeli Ambassador Condemns Far-Left Rabbis Who Penned Diatribe Against Israeli Activities in Gaza

In a pointed and detailed rebuke, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, has issued a scathing letter, obtained exclusively by Belaaz, to Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Yosef Blau, who signed a letter with female “rabbis” and far-left clergymen associated with the fringes of Modern Orthodoxy, condemning Israel.

The letter comes in response to a public statement signed by R. Blau, former mashgiach ruchani of YU, and approximately 80 other clergy, which condemned Israel’s military actions in Gaza. Among the clergy are individuals who are openly involved in activities the Torah deems toeva, abomination.

Ambassador Leiter’s letter, dated September 11, 2025, accuses the signatories of factual ignorance and of echoing the “lies of our worst enemies.”

The ambassador began his letter by expressing his dismay, writing, “I read your publicized statement… with profound shock and disappointment.” He immediately challenged the factual basis of the clergy’s condemnation, arguing that it “not only reflects an acute lack of familiarity with the facts, but is also based on the lies of our worst enemies, which have advanced like a viral contagion in the media.”

Quoting Pirkei Avos, Leiter wrote, “Chachamim, hizehru b’dvarichem… v’nimtza shem shamayim mischalel,” a caution for the wise to be careful with their words lest they cause a desecration of Hashem’s name.

Leiter dismanted the letter’s claims that Israel is withholding humanitarian aid from Gaza. Leiter asserted that from the war’s outset, the Israeli government’s clear policy was that “Gaza must not be allowed to reach a state of famine.”

He provided extensive figures to back this claim:
* Over 2 million tons of humanitarian aid have been transferred into Gaza.
* This includes over 1.6 million tons of food, a quantity he states is “far exceeding the minimum requirements defined by aid organizations.”

Leiter squarely blamed Hamas terrorists for any civilian suffering, citing intelligence assessments that allege the “systematic diversion of aid by Hamas for its military, political, and economic purposes.” He made the explosive claim that “90% of aid has been diverted by Hamas,” a figure he says is validated by the UN’s own tracking systems. This diversion, the letter claims, “has generated an estimated $500 million in revenue for Hamas in 2024 — its largest single source of income.”

He further criticized the UN’s role, stating, “There is absolutely no impediment, qualitative or quantitative, presented by Israel on aid distribution. It is rather the incompetence of the UN affiliates that is responsible for the debacle.”

Leiter took particular issue with the clergy’s inclusion of “extremist settler violence” in their statement about the Gaza war, viewing it as an irrelevant and politically motivated linkage. “Allow me to ask: what is the connection between the situation in Gaza and the actions of extremists elsewhere?” he questioned, using the famous phrase in Rashi’s first piece on parshas Behar
“Ma Inyan Shmita Eitzel Har Sinai?” (What does shmita have to do with Mount Sinai?) to say  the two issues are unrelated.
He argued the phenomenon is exaggerated and is the work of a small group.
* The violent core of the “Hilltop Youth” consists of “fewer than 100” individuals, according to the Shin Bet.
* 65% of the group are minors, many from outside Judea and Samaria with backgrounds of dropping out of the educational system.
Leiter provided statistics to contrast the scale of violence, stating that in 2023, Palestinians carried out 11,370 terror attacks in Yehudah and Shomron, while Israeli Jews were responsible for 1,248 incidents, only 4% of which were attacks against people.

He concluded this section by calling the narrative a tool for delegitimization, writing that its inclusion “appears to be nothing less than a gratuitous attack on the democratically elected government of Israel, at a time when Israel’s enemies are only too happy to receive ideological support from the most unexpected sources.”

The ambassador concluded his letter by dismissing the clergymens’ critique of Israel’s “day after” planning, and demanded accountability from R. Blau. “A public apology in the spirit of Yamim Noraim is in order.”