Tsach Saar, Israeli deputy consul general, visits Pittsburgh

Tsach Saar moved to New York two months before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel.

An Israeli diplomat, Saar previously served as the deputy head of mission at the Embassy of Israel in Athens, counselor for culture and science of Israel in Berlin and deputy ambassador of Israel in Albania. He spent four years as a parliamentary advisor at the Israeli Knesset before beginning his diplomatic career.

In August 2023, Saar was named the deputy consul general and moved to New York. He’s responsible for relationships in five states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Delaware.

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“I came to New York just two months before Oct. 7, which turned everything upside down. The agenda has changed dramatically,” Saar said. “It’s definitely a challenging time to be here.”

Ostensibly, Saar’s main task is to build relationships with community leaders and elected officials. In practice, he said, part of what he does is maintain the special relationship “between Israel and the United States.”

“We build bridges, connection, cooperation and collaboration between academic and cultural institutions, promote trade. It’s a lot of people-to-people work,” he said.

The relationship, he said, is of strategic interest to both sides and is evolving with the new Trump administration.

“It’s very good, I would even say excellent,” he said. “Many things his administration is doing have had a good impact for Israel. That doesn’t mean we didn’t have a good relationship with the previous administration. It’s very important that our relationship is bipartisan with the United States.”

It’s no secret, Saar said, that the Trump administration views the Middle East and Israel’s war with Hamas differently than the Biden administration.

“I’m very happy with the involvement of the president,” he said. “So far, we’ve managed to see an additional 33 Israelis and non-Israelis come back home. Unfortunately, not all of them were alive, but it is progress.”

Asked about the Trump’s actions against university students who support Hamas, Saar said that while free speech and freedom to protest are important, it was Jewish students who were having their rights infringed.

“Jewish students, Israelis and pro-Israelis are the ones being intimidated,” he said. “They don’t feel safe. They’re being attacked physically or being insulted.”

The Israeli government, he said, applauds the administration’s attempts to “finally make Jewish students feel safe on campus. Even prior to Oct. 7 students were being harassed and intimidated. Since Oct. 7, there’s been a normalization of antisemitism.”

Israel has had two primary goals since Oct. 7, Saar said. The first is to bring the hostages home and the second is to ensure that Hamas is not able to commit the atrocities of Oct. 7 ever again.

“It’s really difficult because they operate as a terrorist organization. It’s very easy to keep some kind of guerilla capabilities even after they lose the grip of governance in Gaza,” he said. “That’ s why we would like to see the Gaza Strip demilitarized. If you take away from Hamas their military capability and governance, then you can also start the deradicalization process and healing.”

Until that happens, he said, Hamas will continue to spread its antisemitic message and calls for violence.

The terrorist organization’s goals, Saar noted, are clear: Its charter calls for a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea.”

Still, he’s optimistic, even after Oct. 7, that a path to peace might be found.

“It’s better not to strive or wish for ethnic cleansing of Jews from the river to the sea,” he said. “Maybe with economic development and welfare in Gaza, things will look better.”

That said, Saar realizes that change may be a generation away. First and foremost, he said, the hostages must be returned, and Hamas’ threat eliminated.

Without naming names, the deputy ambassador said that he’s aware of statements made by some elected officials in the States that were not constructive and didn’t acknowledge Hamas’ responsibility for innocent Palestinians lives lost since Oct. 7.

“They use their own people as human shields and hospitals as command centers. They put missiles in mosques and kindergartens that are being shot at us. If you don’t say it out loud people won’t understand that this is their strategy,” he said.

Saar said he hasn’t seen that clarity from some of Pittsburgh’s elected leaders. The statements he has seen, he said, haven’t been helpful.

“If they think it’s constructive or contributes to the security and safety of Jews, Israelis and pro-Israelis on the streets or campuses in Pittsburgh, or if these kinds of statements contribute to the healing and reconciliation here in America, they are wrong,” he said. “It is counterproductive using anti-Zionist and sometimes antisemitic rhetoric,” he said.

In fact, he said, calling for Arab self-determination while ignoring or speaking against Israeli self-determination is antisemitic.

“Because when Jews are excluded from a right every other significant ethnic or religious minority has, and when we’re talking about the same land, that’s antisemitic,” he said. “And I think we’ve had a very strong demonstration that shows us how anti-Zionism is becoming more and more antisemitic.”

As to claims that Israel is committing genocide, Saar is clear. He noted that Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and that the attack of Oct. 7 was against citizens inside Israel, not Gaza or disputed territory.

“They’re the oppressor,” Saar said referring to Hamas. “From the river to the sea, they are supporting the colonization of my land.”

“They are trying to oppress me and take my house, my home, my homeland,” he said. “I don’t have any other country. My grandparents were born in Yemen and had to leave because they were persecuted. When they arrived in Mandatory Palestine in 1932, Jews were there, and they were there centuries before.”

Saar is married to Israeli lawyer Guy Arad and they have two children. In his downtime, he enjoys DJing and playing house music.

Saar spoke to the Chronicle an hour after arriving in Pittsburgh. It was his first trip to the Steel City.
“The classic buildings are so beautiful,” he said before zeroing in on something he noticed in the brief time he had been in the city.

“The vibe is really good, and the people are nice,” he said. “They’re smiling. They’re kind.” PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.