Israeli Diplomat David Roet Discusses Job, Current Affairs

Ambassador David Roet, the Deputy Director General and Head of the North American Division at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, discussed his background and current affairs in a Zoom interview with the Journal while he is visiting California.

The son of Holocaust survivors, Roet has been an Israeli diplomat since 1988, which included stints in Asia and Chicago, overseeing eight consulates around the United States, and being the Deputy Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations. His current position has been “fascinating,” and has allowed him to work with two different presidential administrations, Roet told the Journal. “Good to see that with regards to Israel it has been bipartisan support.” A couple of highlights from his current position include being a part of the Abraham Accords and President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel in July. He praised Biden for saying that you don’t have to be Jewish to be a Zionist and that the U.S. will always have Israel’s back.

As for current events, Roet said that Adidas “did the right thing” in terminating their relationship with rapper Kanye West over his myriad antisemitic remarks. “I was part of [the] formation on the first plenary meeting in the United Nations on antisemitism,” Roet said. “The antisemitism, one cannot ignore it or belittle it. I am very worried to see a world in which Jews are not allowed or told by some that they are the only minority that cannot define what is obnoxious and what is racist against them.”

On the issue of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Roet said it was not a free speech issue but “an issue of singling out one country.” Roet said it was fine to criticize Israel but BDS goes further since it “goes against the existence of the state of Israel.” He is glad that many states in the U.S. are starting to acknowledge this.

The United Nations Commission of Inquiry has also been in the news over its never-ending investigations into alleged Israeli human rights abuses. Roet acknowledged that Israel has imperfections, but the commission appears to be unbalanced given that one member accused Jews of controlling the Internet and another has “a history of anti-Israeli feelings and statements and activities.” “This is only the committee as far as I know in the U.N. Security Council which has no ending date,” Roet said. “On the committee which is dealing with Syria, they have five people. The committee that deals with Israel has 25 people. So it’s another example of the bias that we find in the United Nations.” He added that such bias “damages the validity and credibility of a very important institute.”

The commission recently released a report alleging that Israel’s activities in the West Bank have amounted to “occupation as a permanent fixture.” Roet called the report “unfair” because it “does not mention once Hamas while [mentioning] Israel 275 times.” He thanks the U.S. and other countries for criticizing the report.

On the efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Roet said that his office and the Biden administration have agreed to disagree on the matter. “We have no doubt that the administration’s aim is not to have a nuclear Iran,” he said, but he believes “the deal is not good enough. We believe that it will not stop Iran from becoming a nuclear [power] and we have spoken to the administration about it for a long time. It doesn’t look like an agreement is coming anytime soon but we will have to see. In the meantime, Iran is showing its true colors in all around the Middle East but also now in Ukraine.” Ukraine has accused Iran of providing drones to Russia that they are using in their war against Ukraine. “I hope this shows to everyone what we know and have been saying for a long time about Iran,” Roet continued. “Wherever there is terrorism, there is Iran. In our area, in the Middle East and now in other places as well in the world.”