Diaspora Jews should not be branded as “traitors” for choosing to remain outside Israel, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli said Tuesday in an interview with The Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief Zvika Klein at the Tel Aviv Conference at Tel Aviv University.
The Tel Aviv Conference, titled “Israel’s Future,” was presented by organizers as a forum for public debate, professional analysis, and democratic discourse at a decisive moment for Israeli society.
Chikli made the remarks after Klein asked him about a recent column by journalist Hagai Segal in Makor Rishon, in which Segal criticized American Jews who do not immigrate to Israel and reportedly called them “traitors.”
“That attack on Diaspora Jewry does not serve us,” Chikli said. “I would not use the language of threats.”
The interview was repeatedly interrupted by boos and shouting from the audience, as Chikli defended the government’s record on the haredi draft law, the war, Diaspora Jewry, and political polarization in Israel.
As the audience interrupted the discussion, Klein appealed to the crowd to allow the conversation to continue.
“We spoke here about the polarization index,” Klein said. “I ask you to respect the speakers.”
Israel becoming center of world Jewry, Chikli says
Chikli said Israel was becoming the demographic center of the Jewish world, arguing that Jews in Israel made up 37% of world Jewry in 2000, 45.5% today, and would reach some 68% by Israel’s centennial year.
“Israel is becoming the largest center of world Jewry,” he said.
He then issued a stark warning about the future of Jewish communities in the West.
“It is important to say, painfully, that Diaspora Jewry in Western Europe and North America is dying,” he said. “What keeps the statistics in the US stable are the Orthodox communities, especially the haredi ones, which have high fertility. Outside that circle, the number of Jews is shrinking.”
Chikli said his ministry was trying to strengthen Jewish education among non-Orthodox streams, but added that the situation was “very difficult” because of intermarriage and antisemitism.
Speaking about his own family background, Chikli said his parents immigrated from France and that his father had previously moved there from Tunisia.
“For a child, it is paradise to grow up in the Land of Israel and speak Hebrew,” he said. “I am grateful to my father, who at age 19 left his entire family.”
“To Diaspora Jews I say: However hard it will be for you, for your children it will be paradise here,” he added.
Chikli defends draft bill
Chikli was also asked about reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not advance the haredi draft bill.
“When I was an opposition MK in the previous government, Benny Gantz asked me not to vote against the law that he viewed as his flagship law,” Chikli said. “That law set a target of 2,100 haredi recruits per year within five years.”
The current bill, he said, was far more ambitious, aiming for “8,000 people in the first year and a half” and “50% of the draft cohort within five years,” while also including personal sanctions and excluding civil service tracks.
Asked why he had opposed the proposal, Chikli said he had wanted higher targets given the current reality, but denied outright opposition.
“I said we need a law with higher targets in the current reality,” he said. “It is incorrect that I opposed it. It simply was not the optimum from my perspective.”
He added that legislation should be advanced with the backing of haredi rabbinic leadership.
“In the end, you cannot draft anyone by force,” Chikli said. “Every young person in the State of Israel should enlist, but the road there is long and must be managed wisely.”
War achievements and political polarization
Asked whether the current government was a full right-wing government, Chikli answered: “Certainly, it is a right-wing government.”
He cited what he called a “revolution in Judea and Samaria,” saying the government had advanced more than 100 new communities.
On the war, Chikli rejected claims that Israel had failed to achieve its objectives.
“There are enormous achievements,” he said. “Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran are in the most difficult situation in their history.”
In Gaza, he said, “50% of the territory is held by IDF forces,” and Hamas had been reduced “from a large commando force to a survival force.”
“We do not have everything we wanted, and the enemy still challenges us with guerrilla warfare,” Chikli said. “But the achievements are tremendous.”
The sharpest confrontation came when Klein asked whether he understood why a significant share of right-wing voters seemed to be seeking another political home.
“Everyone is looking for a home,” Chikli said. “The question is whether we learned anything from October 7.”
Chikli accused Netanyahu's opponents of reviving what he called “the boycott bloc” after MKs left Benny Gantz’s party when he said he would not boycott a Likud-Netanyahu government.
At that point, the audience began shouting and interrupting.
“A public that demonstrates so much hatred and desire to boycott the other side should be ashamed of itself,” Chikli said. “You cannot conduct discourse this way.”
He said three events had led Israel to October 7: the Oslo Accords, the disengagement from Gaza, and the “containment doctrine” advanced by right-wing governments.
Asked whether the government was doing enough to bridge polarization in Israeli society, Chikli said he opposed demonstrations outside private homes and road blockages “from the Right and the Left.”
“We crossed every red line in recent years,” he said. “When my children, in first and third grade, get off the school bus on the way home and a protest vigil is waiting for them, that is unacceptable.”
Chikli said Israeli society had to move away from political boycotts.
“You cannot boycott the largest national party and expect unity,” he said.