As I was eating lunch in Taipei 101 the day before my scheduled interview with Israel’s de facto ambassador to Taiwan, an unknown number called me on WhatsApp. The Israeli embassy’s security officer, Colonel Omer (or something like that), told me through his thick Israeli accent that “we are going to have a little chat and ehhh ask a few questions, okay?” As you can imagine, the questions were more numerous than what might be reasonably called “a few.” Later that day, he sent me a simple message confirming I passed the security evaluation. My journey from UMD to Taipei, by contrast, would be far more complicated.
On Sept. 19, 2023, I sat for a screening interview with Maryland Hillel’s Birthright Coordinator. The University of Maryland Birthright trip in January— part of the larger Birthright Israel program, which offers free heritage trips to Israel for young adults— would be my first-ever trip to the Holy Land. But just two and a half weeks later, Hamas turned the world upside down: civilians dragged into tunnels, children murdered in front of their parents, grenades hurled into bomb shelters. It felt like the terrorists had taken a sledgehammer to the pillars of the Zionist project. I never imagined that Lord Balfour’s “national home for the Jewish people” would become the site of an attempt at giving the Holocaust a second act.
I reluctantly withdrew from the Birthright Trip, resigned to the fact that Israel might be at war for a very, very long time.
With my, now unscheduled, two weeks of winter break, I decided to travel to Taiwan to fill the gap and test out my three semesters of Mandarin. While planning my trip, I stumbled upon an interview with Maya Yaron, Israel’s de facto ambassador to Taiwan. I hoped to have a chance to speak with her myself. I requested an interview over email and, to my surprise, it was granted. January came and off to Taipei I went.
On Jan. 4, 2024, I interviewed Representative Yaron at her office in Taipei. Rep. Yaron has had a long diplomatic career, having served eighteen years in Israel’s Foreign Ministry. She currently oversees the Ministry’s Northeast Asia Bureau.
After briefly discussing Israel’s improving economic relationships with Asian countries, we arrived at the elephant in the room: the war in Gaza. Rep. Yaron started off by singing Taiwan’s praises because of the island’s response to Hamas’ attack:
“Taiwan was the first in Asia to show a demonstration of support for Israel after the October 7th massacre. We actually had support statements from Taiwan’s President Tsai, Vice President Lai, and Foreign Minister Wu. This has been a very clear stand by Taiwan supporting Israel from the beginning…we’ve also seen TECO, which is the Taiwanese office in Tel Aviv, be very active in donations and activities, first and foremost, to communities that were affected directly during the October 7th massacre. And this is a very strong message that we would like to hear from many of our friends around the world.”
Rep. Yaron also confirmed that the Taiwanese government has gone beyond mere verbal support by making “actual donations of money and supplies to the communities that were affected … [via] the Israeli Red Cross.”
American media has been saturated by coverage of the war, in no small part thanks to the appearances of Israeli government spokesmen on cable TV. Before his departure from MSNBC, host Medhi Hasan would frequently duke it out with Mark Regev, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s senior advisor for foreign affairs and international communications. Israel clearly values its perception in the United States, so I wondered whether the same is true in Asia. Does Israel have a Mandarin-speaking Mark Regev? If they don’t, why not?
“You’re touching a very sensitive point, and that is we do not have enough Mandarin speakers in our ministry, and we do not have enough Japanese speakers, and we do not have enough Hindi speakers,” she responded frankly. “So, no, the answer is that we don’t have a spokesperson who speaks Chinese or Japanese.”
Rep. Yaron went on to describe the difficulties in explaining the war to Taiwanese and other Asian audiences.
“It’s nice that I’m an Israeli and I can explain, but I need to know how to explain to the audience. I think on this, we have a good contact with the U.S. because we know each other well…This is why we have Mark Regev.
People [in Taiwan] have less knowledge of what is happening in the Middle East. It is far from them. It is a complicated situation, and people want to have black and white, easy answers. They want to know everything quickly. And this is a challenge. How do you explain a very complex situation beyond the headlines?”
To conclude our discussion of the war, I asked Rep. Yaron about allegations of Israeli war crimes, a topic that has embroiled college campuses across our country.
“I have a lot to say about that.” Indeed, she did. Rep. Yaron placed the blame squarely on Hamas for making it difficult for the Israel Defense Forces to “practice International Humanitarian Law”:
“There are not many countries that have had to fight a terror organization that is embedded inside of civilian locations. Inside of hospitals and mosques and schools and civilian homes. And we’re hearing from the hostages who returned. Some of them were in tunnels, but some of them were in family houses with the children and the wife [of a terrorist]. The people keeping them, holding them, were normal families.”
She further characterized Israel’s efforts to move civilians out of harm’s way as unique and extensive, albeit imperfect:
“We know this is uncomfortable. We know this is problematic, but when we are coming to civilians, to Palestinians in Gaza and telling them in advance, and nobody said that before, in any other war, we’re actually coming to people and we are sending messages on WhatsApp, on phone. We’re sending messages by flyers written in Arabic. We’re giving phone calls, automatic phone calls to people. We’re giving warnings before coming and telling them, ‘we are going to attack here, evacuate.’ We open humanitarian corridors and we protect them.”
To finish off the interview on a much lighter note, I asked Rep. Yaron if there are any cultural differences between Taiwan and Israel that she enjoys or finds challenging. After spotting a Mandarin translation of a book about chutzpah on her bookshelf, I added that it was my understanding that humility is more valued than chutzpah in this part of the world. Rep. Yaron replied:
“I will actually choose one… Being cute. Cuteness or being cute is something that is of value in Taiwanese society. This is highly appreciated by many people. And in Israel, not only is it not of value, but it is considered to be childish.”
Rep. Yaron connected this cultural difference to the broader public relations challenge Israel faces in Taiwan:
“The way that we are talking to audiences in the US and in Europe is inappropriate and irrelevant here in Taiwan. I have to really think about how to present things in a much more gentle way in order to reach the audience here. And this is challenging because if there is one thing to say about war specifically, it is not nice. It’s not beautiful. It is definitely not cute.”
A poster caught my eye as I walked out of Rep. Yaron’s office. A Chinese-language plea for the return of the hostages, surrounded by the faces of the stolen. The banner reminded me how privileged I was in that moment. While I was sipping coffee in a soft, leather chair with a beautiful view of the Taipei skyline, dozens of innocent men, women, and children were surrounded by darkness, chained up in dank tunnels far below the Gaza Strip. Hungry, sick, and desperate to go home.
For those who have perished, may their memory be a blessing. For those who remain in Hamas’ grip, may their return home be swift.
