Talking with terrorists or toasting with trump, MK Boaz Bismuth never missed a scoop

Photos: Courtesy of Boaz Bismuth, Flash 90

Boaz Bismuth has a long personal history of being in the right place at the right time.

The most recent example of this came on July 23, when he was overwhelmingly elected by his Likud colleagues to replace Yuli Edelstein as chair of the Knesset’s powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, on a vote of 29 to four. That move was primarily seen as a way for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to smooth ruffled feathers among his chareidi coalition partners, after Edelstein refused to advance a bill regulating the draft status of full-time Torah learners.

But it was telling that Boaz Bismuth, 60, was widely seen as the consensus choice. The longtime committee member posted to social media after his appointment as chair: “I approach my position with sacred reverence, in a time of war that requires national unity. We must — coalition and opposition — rise to the magnitude of the hour, and act for the people and the country. The enemy does not distinguish between Jewish communities. We are all in the same boat.

Since assuming the chairmanship, Bismuth has had to endure the raucous antics of the opposition during committee proceedings. But he keeps the discussion on track, and with his affable manner, has won over many detractors.

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efore he was drafted into politics, Bismuth had another long and colorful career. His decades of experience as a journalist took him to many dangerous and exotic locales and brought him into contact with world-famous figures. Each encounter was another example of his lifelong serendipity.

I met Bismuth in the Knesset recently, joining him for Minchah and then Kaddish for his mother. (In the middle of the shivah, he was forced to come to the Knesset to cast a vote for a key government bill, as several Likud coalition partners were then boycotting the proceedings.)

When we sat down to discuss the various stops in his life, it became clear that his current stint in the Knesset is certainly the least dramatic part. No other MK has a résumé like his, and it is doubtful if any other Israeli has had such close-up encounters with avowed enemies of the Jewish People in recent years as he has.

Our conversation didn’t touch on politics. We traveled back in time together to wars that altered the face of the earth. He recounted all the Arab states he’s visited; meetings and interviews with the leaders of Libya, Syria, and Iran; his relationship with Donald Trump; and offered some insights about the future of the Middle East.

What follows is Boaz Bismuth’s account in his own words, edited for brevity and clarity.