Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Daniel Ayalon, deflected criticism of the country and said Israel wants to ensure its security, no matter how it must be achieved, during a speech at Tufts University Wednesday night.

Ayalon stressed that “Israel wants peace” and said intense talks last week led to landmark policy decisions, including giving up territories to the Palestinians for nothing in return, holding back Israeli forces from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the deconstruction of Jewish settlements in the two territories.

“[Deconstructing Jewish settlements] was a painful decision but a moral decision,” Ayalon told the crowd of about 100 in attendance. “We are seized in a bloody bear hug with Palestinians.”

Ayalon has an Master’s in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and before becoming Israel’s ambassador to the United States in July 2002, was foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and deputy foreign policy adviser to former Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ayalon answered a range of questions concerning everything from Israel’s security fence to the recent assassinations of the past two Hamas leaders.

According to Ayalon, Israel’s goal is to create a new political landscape. The number of Israeli casualties, in proportion to the country’s size, would equate to about 50,000 Americans dead and 300,000 injured, with the majority killed by Yassir Arafat’s forces, he said.

In order to save lives, Israel has created what Ayalon called a “temporary” security fence as a last resort to defend against suicide bombers. He pushed aside comparisons to the Berlin Wall and said the fence is a necessary barrier to terrorist acts.

“It is simply saving lives,” he said. “We don’t like it or want it. It would be down tomorrow if we knew terrorism would stop.”

Ayalon compared Hamas to al-Qaeda and said the assassinations were an act of self-defense because the leaders were killers.

He said the estimated $75 billion in American aid following the Camp David peace talks was “insignificant from an American’s point of view” and he predicted that the economic and civil assistance will fade out by 2008.

“I don’t think that it should come as a surprise to anybody that the U.S. is Israel’s friend,” he said. “America is Israel’s friend and ally.”

Ayalon said he believes America and Israel are bonded by the values of democracy, human rights and civil liberty. Unlike Europe, the United States is not pre-judging any outcomes, he said.

Boston University alumnus Carmit Keddem, a first-year graduate student in Tufts’ Fletcher School of Diplomacy, said that she was happy with the lecture because it balanced many different things she has heard.

“It was nice to have a speaker that represented all points of views,” she said. “We welcomed his point of view and feel that it rounds out the others.”

But Tufts School of Liberal Arts senior Fred Yu said after the event that Ayalon did not do enough to justify the recent killing of Hamas leaders.

“I understand that he has to defend his position, and I expected a very official statement, but I was not satisfied with his answers, especially the assassination of Hamas leaders,” said Yu, who is also an exchange student from Hong Kong.

Tufts’ School of Liberal Arts sophomore Meredith Dobbs, who said she recently returned from Israel and plans to go back next summer, said she went to the event to learn more about Israel’s reasoning behind recent decisions.

“I am very, very active in Israeli policy discussion and want as much knowledge of the decisions as I can,” she said.