Israeli Consul-General in New York Ofir Akunis accused Western leaders of remaining silent as Israel and the US confronted Iran, saying those who failed to publicly back the campaign were effectively standing with the ayatollah regime.
Speaking Tuesday at the Anti-Defamation League’s Never Is Now Summit in New York, Akunis said the military campaign against Iran served the interests of the broader democratic world, not only Israel and the US.
“This campaign is intended not only to defend Israel and the United States, but the entire free world,” Akunis said. “Those same leaders who rushed to condemn Israel have suddenly lost their voice.”
He framed the conflict in stark moral terms, invoking former US president George W. Bush’s message after the September 11 attacks.
"Just as President Bush said after the September 11 attacks: ‘either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,’” Akunis said. “That is the story today as well: if you do not speak up and stand alongside Israel and the United States, you support the ayatollahs!”
Akunis delivered the remarks during a broader address on antisemitism, in which he argued that support for anti-Israel rhetoric and slogans had become normalized in some circles.
“Those who like posts that praise October 7 are antisemitic,” Akunis said.
He added that slogans such as “from the river to the sea,” calls for a “global intifada,” and describing Israel as a “genocidal state” should also be understood as antisemitic.
Israel does not need validation
Akunis also rejected the idea that Israel required outside validation as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
“We do not need anyone to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, and we do not intend to ask for that recognition, not from presidents, not from prime ministers, and not from mayors,” he said.
His remarks came as antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric remained a central focus of public debate in the US, particularly in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 attack and amid the regional fallout from the Israel-Iran war.
The ADL’s Never Is Now Summit, one of the organization’s flagship gatherings on antisemitism and extremism, has drawn public officials, diplomats, activists, and Jewish community leaders to discuss rising hostility toward Jews and the boundaries between criticism of Israel and antisemitic incitement.
In that setting, Akunis presented the current confrontation with Iran as part of a wider struggle over the values of the West, arguing that the response of foreign leaders would be remembered not only for what they said, but for what they chose not to say.