PM seeks to tap hardline aide critical of progressive Jews to serve as NY consul general

Netanyahu’s office says he has yet to make a decision on appointment of US-born Caroline Glick, which Reform Jews in Israel and senior WZO official come out against

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is aiming to appoint his hardline aide Caroline Glick to serve as Israel’s next consul general in New York, Israeli television reported Tuesday.

Glick — a former conservative pundit who has served as Netanyahu’s international affairs adviser since early 2025 — would replace Ofir Akunis, a former Likud party minister who is slated to wrap up his term in New York in the coming weeks.

The US-born Glick, who currently resides in the Efrat settlement, would fill a role whose responsibilities include leading Israel’s engagement with US Jewry.

But she will likely face backlash due to her long-held criticism of the Reform and Conservative movements, which make up a majority of US Jews.

Glick has also been heavily critical of liberal Jewish and Israeli organizations, accusing them of undermining the state, and has argued that “Palestinians were only invented to annihilate the nation of Israel.”

While Glick ran on former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s New Right slate in 2019, her subsequent alliance with the current coalition makes it unlikely that she would stay on as consul general past the fall unless Netanyahu wins the upcoming election.

Glick’s appointment has not yet been announced and would still have to be approved by the cabinet, though the pushback she’ll likely face will not come from ministers tasked with voting to okay Netanyahu’s pick.

Responding to the Channel 12 news report on Netanyahu’s plan, The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv called it “a terrible idea and a testament to the deep contempt and disdain that Netanyahu and his partners hold toward millions of American Jews.”

“The Israeli consulate in New York is the true embassy of Israel to the Jews of America,” tweeted Kariv, who is a Reform rabbi. He added that the reported plan to appoint Glick to head the mission shows that “there is no eye that this government does not try to poke.”

The head of the Israel Movement Reform and Progressive Judaism and a top official at the World Zionist Organization also spoke out against Glick’s potential appointment, with the latter saying it would be “the best way to alienate New York Jews from Israel.”

“Can a person with extremist views and parties like these can represent Israel in the largest Jewish city in the world, one of the most liberal pluralistic cities?” said Yizhar Hess.

Netanyahu’s office said in response that he has yet to make a decision.

Before her appointment as Netanyahu’s international affairs adviser last year, Glick was writing for the Jewish News Syndicate. She has also been a columnist for The Jerusalem Post, a writer for US far-right outlet Breitbart News as well as a senior fellow of the US-based Center for Security Policy.

Additionally, she was an assistant foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu during his first term as premier in the 1990s.