Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations told JNS on Tuesday that criticism lobbed at Jerusalem from multiple directions at the annual U.N. General Assembly was best ignored by those back home.
“We expected that to happen,” Danon said of condemnations of Israel from U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Jordanian King Abdullah and others from the General Assembly podium.
Danon said that Guterres saw the applause he received when discussing the suffering in Gaza as a result of the war between Israel and Hamas
“But when he spoke about our hostages, silence,” Danon observed.
Danon said Erdoğan’s comparison of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler was “outrageous.”
“We will stand strong and proud against those lies, against the libel, and I am telling my colleagues in Israel, keep going,” Danon said. “Do whatever you have to do against Hezbollah, against Hamas.”
“I know how to handle those guys here,” he added.
With a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian file called for Friday and an emergency session on Lebanon requested by the French now set for Wednesday—both during high-level debate week—Danon said the global body offers no solutions.
“It’s much easier to talk and to condemn Israel,” he said. “If someone wants to avoid a war today between Israel and Lebanon, he should speak up today against Hezbollah and put pressure on the Lebanese government.”
“Instead of doing that, it’s much easier to condemn Israel and to blame us for crazy things that they are doing here,” he added. “I expect real leaders to come with real solutions.”
‘You have to be neutral’
Danon said that a solution in Lebanon is as simple as Hezbollah retreating north of the Litani River, an east-west waterway parallel to the Israel-Lebanon border that was supposed to serve as the marker for a no-man’s land following the 2006 Lebanon War.
The Israeli diplomat told JNS that such a move by Hezbollah “will be a solution that will avoid the escalation.”
“We don’t want to see full war with Lebanon,” he said. “Lebanon will not look the same if they continue to attack us.”
Danon said that countries attacking Israel diplomatically can’t be a part of any potential solutions after they have blamed the victims.
“It’s not helpful,” he said. “All those who are playing the game attacking Israel, they shouldn’t expect that we’re going to allow them to come and be part of the process.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” he added. “You have to be neutral. You have to try to bring the sides to a point that they can agree. But what we see with most of the countries here, they just want to come blame Israel and move on.”
