Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering appointing conservative commentator and adviser Caroline Glick as Israel’s next consul general in New York, replacing Ofir Akunis, N12 reported on Tuesday evening.
The report, first published by Channel 12 parliamentary correspondent Dafna Liel on the network’s main evening news broadcast, said Glick was Netanyahu’s preferred candidate for the post. Akunis, a former Likud minister, is expected to step down, according to N12. The Prime Minister’s Office told N12 that no final decision had been made.
N12 described the possible appointment as unusual, given Glick’s long record of criticism toward Reform and Conservative Judaism in the US. According to the report, Glick has for years promoted a hard line against the two movements, accusing members of adopting anti-Jewish positions, distancing themselves from Zionism, and cooperating with anti-Israel elements.
The New York consul-general position is one of Israel’s most sensitive diplomatic posts. The office works with one of the world’s largest Jewish communities, major Jewish organizations, donors, universities, media outlets, and diplomatic missions.
Glick, an American-born Israeli journalist and former Jerusalem Post columnist, has written extensively about American Jewry, US politics, Israel-Diaspora relations, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She has been sharply critical of liberal American Jewish institutions and has argued that many of them have become too closely aligned with progressive politics.
In a 2017 column in The Jerusalem Post, Glick wrote that “Israel and much of the American Jewish community are moving in different directions.” She argued that the main split between Israel and American Jewish leaders was political and ideological, especially over Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians and the role of non-Orthodox Jewish streams in Israel.
In another column, published by JNS in 2020, Glick wrote that “in many Reform and Conservative synagogues, Judaism is portrayed as a synonym for progressive politics.” She also wrote that Jewish supporters of then-US president Donald Trump in such congregations were unlikely to express their views openly.
Potential appointment follows controversy
In 2021, Glick wrote in Israel Hayom that “stories have abounded” of members of Reform and Conservative congregations who had been “ostracized or forced to leave their communities due to their conservative political beliefs,” particularly support for Trump.
The possible appointment comes days after a separate controversy involving Social Equality Minister May Golan, who drew criticism after attacking Reform Rabbi and Democrats MK Gilad Kariv in the Knesset. Golan accused Kariv of “officiating dog weddings in your delusional synagogues,” a remark later condemned by Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, as “disgusting and reprehensible.”
Leiter said he would meet Reform Movement leaders and apologize “on behalf of Israel,” according to reports at the time. The incident sparked anger among American Jewish leaders and renewed discussion about the Israeli government’s relationship with non-Orthodox Jewish communities in the US.
Netanyahu previously considered Glick for post
Glick had previously been floated for the New York position. JNS reported in April 2023 that she was among the candidates being considered for the post after Netanyahu decided against appointing Golan following criticism from American Jewish leaders and the US State Department over Golan’s past remarks.
Akunis was selected by Netanyahu for the post in February 2024 and was later approved by the cabinet. He took up the position during a period of rising antisemitism and anti-Israel activism in New York and on US campuses following the October 7 massacre and the Israel-Hamas war.
No formal announcement has been made regarding Akunis’s replacement.