Dani Dayan is optimistic the new government will deliver, stating that just as he is a member of a party called New Hope, he hopeful about the current political situation.
The new Israeli government may not be anyone’s “dream government” but it is the best option given the election’s complicated results, said Dayan, the former Consul General of Israel in New York, in an exclusive interview with Arutz Sheva.
Dayan said that he “wholeheartedly supported” the formation of the government.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has remarked that this government will more right wing, more nationalistic than previous Netanyahu governments.
Dayan is not sure if that will happen. He said that the government is “a kind of compromise.”
“The most important factor that will decide if this government will succeed or fail is the understanding that each component of the government when arriving at a decision making junction will think about the sensibilities and the red lines of the other components,” he said. “If they do it that way, they will succeed.”
Sounding an optimistic note on the future of relations between Israel and the United States in an era without Trump and Netanyahu, Dayan said that Israel will still have differences of opinion with the White House. However, he believes there is a “curiosity in Washington” towards Prime Minister Bennett and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
“Without the extra burden on their shoulders that Netanyahu had as being so identified with the Republican Party” he feels like there is an opportunity for a good relationship.
“We had a very positive starting point of the initial phone call between Biden and Bennett,” he said, noting both have common interests, including weakening the radical wing in the Democratic Party.
He doesn’t see a similarity between President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama. Anyone who feels like it’s the third term of Obama is “dead wrong.”
“It’s more similar to Bill Clinton. We had our differences with President Clinton but we did not have the type of clashes that we had with President Obama,” he said.
Dayan’s name is being talked about to become the new chair of the Jewish Agency.
He is interested. He has been approached by both Israelis and Americans and it would be a “great honor” if he’s chosen to succeed President Isaac Herzog in that position.
“The issue of Jewish peoplehood is really in my blood and my bones. I am very passionate about the cohesion of the Jewish people,” he said.
He explained there are two extra mitzvot that are in this generation.
The first is to maintain Israel as a strong, thriving Jewish state.
The second is to guarantee the continuity of the Jewish community outside Israel, as millions of Jews aren’t immediately going to be making Aliyah in the coming years.
“The most important thing for me is to guarantee the cross-responsibility that Israelis will see themselves responsible for Israel but also for (Jews) across the ocean, and Jews in the world will see themselves for their Jewish life but also for the State of Israel. That will be my mission if I am elected.”