On February 25, 2025, the Senator Joseph Lieberman – Mitzner Center for Public Service and Advocacy hosted Israel Nitzan, former Deputy Consul General & Acting Consul General of Israel, as part of its “In Dialogue With” speaker series. Over 40 students attended the discussion, which was co-sponsored by the S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program and moderated by Lieberman-Mitzner Scholar Daniella Landau.
Nitzan began the conversation with an overview of his career in the foreign service, after studying Middle East History and International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He then moved to Egypt to work at the Israeli embassy in Cairo before being transferred to the Southeast Asia department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Nitzan admitted that as a graduate of Middle Eastern studies, he was not thrilled about the latter posting, but he quickly found meaning in the work and service. He mentioned that this posting helped him learn to embrace change and welcome new challenges, stressing to the students that they should “never turn down the opportunity to learn something new.”
Nitzan then transitioned to speaking about his time working at the United Nations (UN), where he served as a Counselor for Political Affairs at Israel’s UN Mission and the Director of the Foreign Ministry’s U.N. Political Affairs Department. “We have a problem with the UN,” Nitzan said, noting that the international body suffers from excessive politicization, as seen in the last year and a half, making this international body almost irrelevant in many critical areas of international relations. He placed most of the blame on the current UN leadership, which he pointed out has had zero influence over the two major conflicts of the last 10 years – the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza. He argued that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRAW) is the epitome of the UN’s bias against Israel, as it is the only UN refugee body dedicated to a specific population and that Palestinians are the only group that has its refugee status passed on from generation to generation. Nitzan stated that these exceptions do not necessarily come from a place of concern for the Palestinians, but from a place of political bias against Israel & use of the UN system against Israel. He also made the case that between the Islamic, Arab and Non-Aligned Movement, Israel faces an antagonistic automatic majority in nearly all UN committees.
Despite these hardships and biases, Nitzan believes that representing Israel on the world stage is critical to the safety and security of the Jewish state. He also revealed that while there are many public fights in the halls of the UN, there is a significant amount of behind-the-scenes collaboration, even between countries that are “enemies” in the public eye. “Diplomacy, at the end of the day,” Nitzan said, “is about people. You need to take the time to build and maintain meaningful relationships.”
Addressing students who are looking to go into diplomacy and international relations, Nitzan warned that, between the travel and biases, the “diplomatic life of the wandering Jew is difficult.” But he emphasized that the rewards of the job and service far outweigh the negatives. “It is a great privilege to represent your country,” he concluded.
Previous “In Dialogue With” series speakers include Hon. Clarine Nardi Riddle, former Attorney General of Connecticut and former chief of staff to Senator Lieberman himself; Jonathan Greenspun, managing director of the public affairs firm Mercury; and Matthew Incantalupo, YU assistant professor of political science.
To learn more about the Senator Joseph Lieberman-Mitzner Scholars Program, click here.
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