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Letter From the Middle East

A Forceful Voice in Defense of Israel’s Image Abroad

Gilad Erdan, the Israeli minister of public security, in Nazareth in 2013. He is concerned with “the effort to boycott and delegitimize Israel.”Credit...Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images

JERUSALEM — Gilad Erdan is one of the rising stars of the conservative Likud Party: a 45-year-old former yeshiva student, a lawyer and an adviser to two prime ministers, Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu. For the March 2015 elections, he was No. 2 on the party list, just after Mr. Netanyahu, whom he now serves as minister of public security, strategic affairs and public diplomacy. But only after Mr. Erdan played hardball and refused initial offers.

Like many aspiring young Likudniks, Mr. Erdan is no shrinking violet. In fact, in an interview in his Parliament office, he spoke so loudly across a modest desk that I thought we were in an auditorium.

He has a lot on his mind — the wave of stabbing and shooting attacks on Israelis by Palestinians; relations with the weakening Palestinian Authority; more effective outreach to young Americans of all kinds; and what he considers the responsibility of social media companies to police themselves against anti-Semitism and incitement to terrorism.

He says he is particularly concerned with “the effort to boycott and delegitimize Israel,” which he sees expressed in the European Union’s labeling of products imported from settlements and in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

“I grew up in an Orthodox family, and I was very, very right wing and never supported to give up even one inch of the land of Israel,” Mr. Erdan said. “Later on I understood that reality is more complex here.”

He wants a permanent peace, but “to give up territories that we believe morally, historically and biblically we have more rights to be there, we must convince the public that we have a partner for peace.”

He is scathing about the Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, for failing to speak out against terrorism, violence and incitement, but praises the authority’s security cooperation with Israel that has prevented scores of attacks, saving numerous Palestinian and Israeli lives.

“We think of how to strengthen the Palestinian Authority,” Mr. Erdan said. “On the one hand, they are our enemy,” and on the other, “cooperation is important for both sides.”

Without the Israeli Army in the West Bank, Mr. Erdan said, using a traditional name for Mr. Abbas, “Abu Mazen would not be there.”

But Mr. Erdan insists that Mr. Abbas’s refusal to endorse stabbing attacks is only tactical, “because Abu Mazen would say, ‘It’s not helping our interests now,’ ” when he wants to appeal for international recognition.

Mr. Erdan thinks the European Union’s restatement of regulations on labeling imports from settlements is “based on hypocrisy and double standards” and “anti-Semitism, maybe.” Brussels has no such labels for Turkish Cyprus or the Western Sahara, he says, and such measures — “when you label something you mean it’s bad” — won’t promote peace.

“If you promote peace you don’t give one side the feeling that you will adopt all their demands,” he said. “Muslim minorities are growing in Europe and have their own influence on political decisions.”

Israel is worried, too, about young Americans, who are less connected to Israel than their parents.

“One of our goals,” he said, “is to strengthen the relationship of Israel to the young generation in the diaspora” through subsidized visits, not just for Jews but for blacks, Hispanics and trade union leaders, he said, and with better information on American campuses.

He referred to the recent decision to set aside part of the Western Wall for mixed-gender worship.

“When we take decisions, we try to take into consideration how it is seen in America,” he said. “We’ll do whatever we can to hug them,” despite political criticism from the ultra-Orthodox.

As for social media companies, Mr. Erdan said, they must not simply use the information available to them to sell advertisements, but “take more responsibility to stop incitement and terrorism.”

These days, “we must draw a red line between freedom of speech and the right to protect ourselves,” Mr. Erdan said, citing the influence of radical Islam, before adding a warning. “We don’t want to reach the conclusion that we need to promote legislation in Israel to draw those red lines.”

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