At the Rising Bharat Summit 2025, Abraham Moshe ‘Avi’ Dichter, an Israeli politician currently serving as the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu after the October 7, 2023 attacks.
“On October 7, 2023, when the horrible attacks from Gaza occurred and Israelis were tortured,
killed, raped, kidnapped, one of the first world leaders who called the PM of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu was the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. He offered any help that Israel needed. That’s true friendship…when it comes on time,” said Dichter.
The session was part of CNN-News18’s Rising Bharat Summit 2025 in New Delhi on April 8-9 which will see over 75 power-packed sessions, with more than 100 visionary speakers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
“Israel is a tiny country but we have a large variety of climate areas. You can ski in the north, by noon, drive along the Jordan valley and by late afternoon, you can swim in the Red Sea. In agriculture, we have so many climate areas such as deserts, arid, semi-arid areas. It makes Israel a laboratory for agriculture which we offer to India. If you want to make mistakes, make new mistakes. That was the subject of discussion today with Indian agriculture minister [Shivraj Singh] Chouhan,” said Dichter.
About the current situation in Gaza, Dichter said, “Right after the October 7 attacks, we put three goals for the Israeli council of defence and political issues. One was to destroy the military infrastructure of Hamas and Palestinian terrorist organisation in Gaza, second was to topple the regime of Hamas in Gaza, and the third was to release all hostages. We never faced a situation where people were kidnapped from their homes — women, babies and adults, children, Israelis and non-Israelis, Jews and Muslims. A total of 255 hostages were in Gaza. We still have 59 hostages there. At least 22 are alive. The war won’t end before we achieve the three goals. The most urgent goal is to release the hostages.”
About the ceasefire, he said, “Ceasefire is the fire between two fires. We had two agreements about releasing hostages, and ceasefire and releasing Palestinian terrorists from jails. We had the first agreement and Hamas broke it. That is why we returned fire. The second one lasted for 42 days until another discussion. They began to open fire and we responded before the situation could escalate. The meeting between Netanyahu and Donald Trump yesterday was to release the hostages.”
About the new Trump administration, Dichter said, “He was the first American president who decided and implemented the moving of American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He means business. When the Houthis didn’t stop, he launched airstrikes. When he told Iran to get into discussion…He is clear we will talk or strike.”
On Trump’s Gaza Riveira plan, he said, “That time he mentioned 1.7 million people of the 2.3 million people in Gaza. The UN body for refugees – UNRRA – had said 71% in Gaza are refugees. He means to rehabilitate 1.7 million people in Gaza. Its something a giant superpower like the US can do…”
About the India-Israel-Middle East-Europe corridor, he said, “Israel is half the size of Kerala. To write the name Israel on the map, we have to borrow a part of the Mediterranean. But Iran has a strategy to take over Israel and Saudi Arabia. That is the vision of Iran, to take Mecca and Medina, so they tried to build two corridors of war and destruction. The northern corridor was broken recently. We are trying to build a new corridor of peace, business…The good guys will beat the bad guys.”
About the endgame in Gaza, he said, “Gaza has an area of 330 sqkm like a small city in India. In 1967, there were 37,000 people, today there are 2.3 million. They say it will become Singapore. Singa it might not be, but poor it will. Gaza was taken by the terrorists of Hamas in 2007. First, we have to destroy the terrorist organisation, then the world and not just Israel will be able to solve this problem better.”
The News18 Rising Bharat Summit 2025 is where India’s defining conversations take centre stage.
As the world acknowledges Bharat’s emerging power, this summit will bring together the biggest Indian leaders, global policymakers, industry stalwarts, tech innovators, and start-up revolutionaries to address the most urgent issues defining our future.
With insightful dialogues on global supply chains, sustainable urban growth, and the next wave of innovation, the summit will drive crucial conversations on the journey of a self-reliant, future-ready Bharat on its path to global leadership by 2047.
KEYWORDS: Yeah Rishta Kya, Salman Khan, PM Modi, Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan
