The joint mechanism between Israel, Syria, and the US has “great potential” to expand the Abraham Accords in the future, Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter told The Jerusalem Post in an interview.
“The potential is great. We certainly hope so,” Leiter said on Thursday. “There’s no reason that it shouldn’t happen other than if we see that jihadi elements within the new Syrian army are empowered.”
The ambassador said that “there was a march just the other day in Damascus, where one of the soldiers was wearing the emblem of ISIS on his Syrian army uniform. Now, if that’s an exception, a blowover, and not representative, then it’ll go away. But if there’s something deeper than that, then it’s very concerning.”
He added that Israel was looking to give the new mechanism time to develop.
“We want to see this develop into something we can be confident in. If we leave southern Syria, we won’t have jihadi forces come down, threaten the Jews, and threaten our border. That’s really what we’re most concerned about.”
Leiter explained that the joint mechanism signed would allow for further dialogue and intelligence sharing between Israel and Syria.
“The joint mechanism would mean talking constantly instead of meeting every three or four weeks for talks. So the mechanism would deal with de-confliction,” he said.
“If anything came up, troops are moving in a direction where somebody wants to call it out, or we see terrorist movement, or there’s agitation among any of the minorities or whatnot, we can de-conflict, and at the same time, discuss modalities for deepening collaboration, whether it’s economic or in the area of healthcare. I mean, anything we can explore for economic development would help the Syrians move forward.”
Recognizing Israel, accommodating Judeo-Christian civilization a ‘battle’ within Islam, Leiter says
In general remarks to Congregation Ahavath Sholom in Fort Worth, Texas, Leiter drew a line in the sand between reformists in Islam and radical jihadists.
“There is a tension, or a battle even, within Islam over whether or not to accommodate Judeo-Christian civilization. The reformation takes the form of accommodation, of moderation. Of moving out of a mode that says that a caliphate has to rule the world. That it’s not both of us together, but it’s one in place of the other,” Leiter said.
“If you’re going to accommodate Judeo-Christian civilization, what’s the first thing you’re going to do? You’re going to recognize Israel. Because it’s this Judeo-Christian transplant in the heart of Islam. And if you’re going to be a counter-reformation, what are you going to do? You’re going to say recognition of Israel is the first step for the defeat of our civilization.”
Leiter went on to say in Fort Worth that the current members of the Abraham Accords are reformers of Islam.
“When we entered into the Abraham Accords, in Trump 1.0, 2019-2020, it was a victory for the reformers within Islam. For those who say ‘we can live in peace with Judeo-Christian civilization. And you know how we’re going to prove it? By living in peace with Israel.’
“So the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan made peace with Israel without conditions. They didn’t say divide Jerusalem. They didn’t say give up the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, the settlements. No. They made peace. Why? Because they’re promoting an Islam that says side by side with Western civilization instead of defeating Western civilization.”
Leiter told the Post that a potential future security agreement, ahead of an expansion of the Abraham Accords between Israel and Syria, would primarily involve a defined, mutually respected border between the two countries.
“There would be ironclad protection for the Druze community in Sweida, it’s about half a million Druze,” he added. “We have to ensure that they’re protected. It would look like something along the lines of an agreement where Turkish troops, Russian troops, and jihadi troops would not be moving past a certain line toward the south.”
Israel-Hamas War revealed I-P conflict is about destruction of Jewish state
Notably, Leiter has two books in the works, one debunking claims of Israel committing genocide in Gaza and intentionally starving civilians, and another that will be an intergenerational conversation on Zionism.
“Zionism didn’t begin with Theodor Herzl,” he said. “Theodor Herzl was able to see that it was time to brush Zionism, dust that had accumulated over 2,000 years of exile, and that the time was right to brush the dust off and to reconstitute it.
“Our introduction to Judaism is an instruction to Abraham. ‘Leave your father’s home, your birthplace, and go to the land which I will show you.’ You can’t change history. That’s how Jewish history begins, with Zionism, connecting the people and the land.”
He added that “we don’t occupy anybody else’s land. We’re indigenous to the Land of Israel. We don’t need to apologize for being who we are: the Land of Israel and the people of Israel.”
The ambassador also said the Israel-Hamas War proved that the Israel-Palestine conflict was much more than a dispute over territory.
“This isn’t a border dispute,” he said. “This is the positive, the flip side, the silver lining on October 7, if you can say there’s such a thing. It tore the mask off the notion that all we have to do is give up a few kilometers here, give up a few kilometers there, divide Jerusalem… That’s not the issue. They’re talking about destroying the State of Israel.”
Leiter said that proof of this can be found in pro-Palestinian protest chants.
“On October 8, they were screaming ‘from the river to the sea,’ which is eliminationist, which is no different than saying, let’s do Auschwitz again. It’s the same thing,” he said.
“You ask yourself, how could that be? How can somebody talk about, and how does anybody applaud, ‘from the river to the sea’? And how do people applaud mass slaughter? It can only be for one reason, folks. And that’s if you fundamentally reject the notion that we have a right to a state. You reach a conclusion that anything that’s done against the state is legitimate and anything that’s done by the state to defend itself is illegitimate.”
Remembering Maj. (res.) Moshe Leiter z’'l
Leiter then hit out against political figures who are accusing Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
“If we committed what we’re being accused of doing, my son, my friends’ sons, would be alive today. We didn’t bomb population centers from the air. We went in on foot to weed out the terrorists.”
Maj. (res.) Moshe Leiter was killed in action alongside three other reservists in Beit Hanun. He was assigned with finding the entrance to a Hamas tunnel in northern Gaza. When he found the target, he announced it on the radio, but underground terrorists blew up the tunnel and the area surrounding it.
“Had we just bombed that area because we knew that there was a tunnel there, they could be alive. Despite the fact that we take such precautions to avoid collateral damage, we’ve been libeled.”
Leiter went on to detail how President Donald Trump mentioned his slain son during the president’s visit to Israel.
“You know, with all the Trumpism about him that makes people love him and makes other people hate him, I got to tell you something about the guy’s heart,” he said, speaking of their first introduction.
“He grabs my hand, pulls me toward him, and he says, ‘You know that your son’s looking down and smiling at us now, you know?’ There wasn’t somebody behind him whispering something in his ear. It came from the kishkes, and it was so natural.
“I said, ‘Mr. President, he began this operation against Hamas, and you and the prime minister are finishing it now,’ and he gave me a hug.”
Battling antisemitism and bearing the weight of our forefathers
Wrapping up with his official remarks at the synagogue in Fort Worth, Leiter called on Diaspora Jews to stand up for themselves against antisemitism and “add more weight.”
“Repeat your truth. Don’t be cast aside. Don’t let your guard down. Don’t feel defeated. You’ve got to stand up, and you’ve got to fight. You’ve got to hit back. You say, ‘We are not the brunt of history anymore. We’re not going to take it.’”
He recalled how his slain son, Moshe, came back one Friday after a brutal multiday training session for the Shaldag forces, absolutely exhausted but still standing proud.
“He was carrying 65 to 70 kilograms on his back. They don’t eat for two days. And he was so tired. Before he went up to shower and get ready for Shabbat, I said, ‘You know, how is it that your knees don’t buckle? You’re carrying all that weight on your shoulders for days. How is it that you don’t collapse?’ And he said, ‘Abba, I add weight.’
“I said, ‘Come on. You know, you’re always joking with me. I asked you a serious question.’
“He said, ‘No, Abba, I’m serious. I add weight. I add the hopes and prayers of my bubbies and my zaydies for 2,000 years. And the more I add their prayers on my shoulders, the easier it is to bear the weight,” Leiter said.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you are carrying the weight of your bubbies and your zaydies for 2,000 years on your shoulders. And that’s a weight that you need to bear. If you continue to look for ways of adding a little more, adding a little more to your prayers, adding a little bit more to your support of Israel, then that weight is going to be an easy weight that you’re carrying with you.”