Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan spoke at the Israel Heritage Foundation Arutz Sheva event in New York City on Thursday.
“I work very hard every day to fight against the lies and the incitement that are being spread against Israel at the UN,” Erdan said. “Today, because there are so many international legal bodies and social media, and lies and incitement against Israel and the Jewish people spread rapidly and they can be used to chase our soldiers at the International Criminal Court or they can be used to put pressure on companies like Ben & Jerry’s to boycott Israel, it is very important to fight against these falsehoods at the UN because it might do harm to the Jewish people and the State of Israel.”
Erdan explained that while it’s assumed there is an automatic majority against Israel at the UN, he believes it’s possible to “diminish, erode or neutralize” it with a two-part strategy he designed.
“The first part is to always be on the offensive, meaning I’m very proud to represent the one and only Jewish state. I think you know we are a moral country, no country is perfect but obviously Israel is the most vibrant democracy in the Middle East. We believe in tikkun olam, so we always need to be on the offensive to expose the hypocrisy of our enemies, to fight against their lies. That’s what I do almost every day at the UN.”
“On the other hand, it’s not enough to be on the offensive and fight against the lies and incitement. It’s also important to showcase Israel’s contributions to the world. Israel is the world leader on many of the issues that are so crucial for the world, like water scarcity, renewable energy, digital health and many more.”
“So that’s what I’m trying to do and showcase at the UN in order to connect ourselves, strengthen our bilateral relations with member states and convince them to break away from their regional or religious groups at the UN and change their voting patterns because many of them are committed to the groups they belong to."
Erdan described the UN as a “convoluted organization comprised of 193 member states divided into regional or religious groups like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which includes 57 Islamic member states.”
“Many times these countries are committed to their regional or religious groups and I work to strengthen our bilateral relations with them,” he said. “We succeeded, for example, with Hungary and the Czech Republic, with countries with a strong majority of Evangelical Christians, like Guatemala that started to be very supportive of the State of Israel.”
“These two tactics are used on a daily basis at the UN and this is how we make a difference at the UN to try to fight this automatic majority at the United Nations,” he added.
After Erdan finished speaking, Martin Oliner, co-president of the Religious Zionists of America and chair of the Center for Righteousness and Integrity, said:
“I know the ambassador, he's understated his position here today. What he's doing with the United Nations is extraordinary. Let me speak to you about it for 30 seconds. He's running trips with all foreign delegations, he's taking other members and has made a massive change in their outlook. I was at a function that he hosted this week for Yom Ha'atzmaut. There were a thousand people there, all from the United Nations. He is making enormous impact and he is understating his position to you this afternoon. He is Moses. We all own an extreme debt of gratitude.”

(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)