Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon has returned to Israel after representing the Jewish State for nearly five years in the halls of the UN.
Danon had to spend 14 days in quarantine upon returning to Israel from New York due to coronavirus restrictions. "It wasn't easy, but it's great to be in Israel," he said.
Summing up his time at the UN, Danon told Arutz Sheva that "the UN is a very hostile place with a lot of hypocrisy against Israel, but still it's an important organization and we have to fight from the inside. I proved that you can actually win inside the halls of the UN. I was elected to very important positions in the General Assembly, as the Vice President of the General Assembly, the first Israeli ever to chair a UN committee. You can win at the UN, but you have to fight day and night."
Danon said that the UN's energies can be used to Israel's benefit and not just to attack the Jewish State. "It's a challenge, but, for example, together with [former US Ambassador to the UN] Nikki Haley, we decided to put a resolution against Hamas in the General Assembly. And all of a sudden, allof the capitals had to decide whether they are voting with us against Hamas or not. And for like a week, that was the main issue at the UN. So you need to think creatively about controlling the agenda, controlling the narrative, and I did it also with bringing Israeli culture, Israeli food, Judaism into the UN. I used Judaism to bring ambassadors closer to Israel."
"And most importantly, I brought the UN to Israel. I brought more than 100 UN ambassadors over the years to visit Israel. Ambassador Haley came for the first time when I took her to travel in Israel. You can see the impact of the trips on the ambassadors. Most of them will continue in public life, will become ministers and heads of states. That's why it was a great experience for them to visit out beautiful country," he said.
"You have the public UN, and you have the private UN. And privately, you build bridges, you make friends. A few of the Muslim ambassadors are very close to me. I visited a few of the Muslim countries [with whom] we don't have diplomatic relations yet. We cooperated against Hamas. So you can do a lot with those countries, and I will tell you a secret. Most of them support Israel and even admire Israel. When I speak with them over breakfast in my residence and we discuss the Middle East, they admire what we achieved in a short 72 years. I think it's only a matter of time until we will be able to publicly expose the cooperation between Israel and those moderate Arab countries," he declared.
"I think many of them understand what we understood a few years ago: it's not because of us that we don't resolve the conflict. It's because of the Palestinians. And they are tired of it. They say to the Palestinians: 'enough. Sit down. Negotiate with the Israelis. If you are not willing to do it, we are going to do it.'"
When asked what will be the biggest challenge his successor at the UN, Gilad Erdan, Danon said that "the number one challenge is blocking the aggression of Iran, applying more sanctions against Iran. Wherever you see instability in the region, you can find the fingerprints of the Iranian regime, whether it's Hezbollah in Lebanon, their proxies in Syria, Hamas in Gaza. So we will have to continue to push the Iranian regime."
As for his future, Danon said that "if you want to make a change, you have to enter the kitchen. I come back with a lot of patience and compassion. I come back with a lot of experience. And I intend to be involved in public life in my party, in my movement, the Likud party, and I think I can bring the knowledge and connections that I made over the years to the benefit of the Israeli people."