Fleisher (left) with Thomas Friedman and Kathleen Kingsbury in Hebron
Fleisher (left) with Thomas Friedman and Kathleen Kingsbury in HebronCourtesy

Yishai Fleisher, international spokesman of the Jewish community of Hebron, hosted New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and Kathleen Kingsbury, The New York Times' Opinion Editor, during a visit to the city.

During the tour, Fleisher brought Kingsbury and Friedman to visit local historical sites, detailing the history of the sites and their connection to the Jewish.

The three also visited the Beit Menachem overlook in the Tel Rumeda neighborhood, an area associated with the biblical city of Hebron, to show how large and flourishing the city is for its Arab inhabitants.

"The Left never bring visitors to this overlooking location", Fleisher explained, "because from here you can see that the Jewish live on one defended street, within a giant and thriving Arab city, most of which Jews are barred from going into - this is in fact a Jewish ghetto."

"It is obvious that we disagree about many things", Fleisher told Israel National News, "nevertheless I enjoyed spending time with our visitors and I believe that the tour was enlightening and that they now better understand our narrative."

After the tour, Yishai took to social media, writing: “A privilege to tour Thomas Friedman of @nytimes in ancient and reborn Jewish #Hebron and at the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs.”

“I told him that what he wrote "The Israel We Knew is Gone" is all wrong, rather, "The Israel We Knew is BACK" - that is, the badass Jewish State that protects the Jewish ethnic minority in this region has returned. Israel went liberal for a few years, but it weakened our basic security.”

“Now, Jewish nationalism and pushing back on local antisemitism is what the people of Israel are yearning for.”