Gilad Erdan, global president of national first-responder organization Magen David Adom and Israel's former ambassador to the US and the UN, called for the formation of a national unity government at the 2nd Israel Hayom Summit in New York
In a conversation with Israel Hayom security analyst Yoav Limor, Erdan said that given the security challenges, the decline in Israel's international standing and the need to legislate the Haredi conscription law, a narrow government would not be able to provide an answer.
"I urge both Prime Minister Netanyahu and (Yashar leader) Gadi Eisenkot – enter the room together, compromise and deliver to the citizens of Israel the unity government we so badly need," he said. Erdan also sharply criticized Israel's public diplomacy policy in the US. He argued that the decline in support for Israel is also a colossal failure of the government. According to Erdan, "Israel's branding is not a nice-to-have; it's part of national security."
"We have to see what Qatar has been doing for years and do the opposite – we should always be on the offensive. We shouldn't be just bragging about developing the flash drive or having the largest gay parades; we should expose the savagery and the barbarism of our enemies constantly…we need to deploy hundreds of Israeli students in Ivy League universities to organize demonstrations to support Israel, and do many other things, but the main problem is that the Israeli government has never internalized that today's Israel's branding is not a nice-to-have; it's part of national security."
He added that today, "when Israel has become so toxic, Congress and the president sometimes are afraid, even President Biden, we saw after Oct. 7, he basically tied our hands and prevented us from defending ourselves as we could have."
Erdan later addressed Magen David Adom's work during the war, noting that the organization deploys about 35,000 volunteers and works in close cooperation with the IDF, which allows it to dispatch ambulances to areas where missile strikes are expected. According to Erdan, the mortality rate among the wounded fell by 50% compared with previous wars. Erdan stressed the need to expand the fleet of armored ambulances and strengthen emergency infrastructure.
