“I don’t accept the terms starvation and famine,” Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon has told the JC in an interview at his office in New York City, in reference to the humanitarian conditions in Gaza. “The situation is not ideal but we are doing all that we can. There are players who want to cooperate and those who want to play the bashing game.”
Last week the Biden administration confirmed it would not impose an arms embargo on Israel, a month after the White House sent a letter to Jerusalem stating the Jewish state had 30 days to improve humanitarian conditions for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Danon believes Gazans have a stark choice: change tack or continue to promote terror, and he was not optimistic about which path they would choose. He was equally pessimistic about the situation in the West Bank, expressing his disappointment with the Palestinian Authority, a “weak” entity which “supported October 7.”
Last month the Palestine Liberation Organisation, headed by PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, eulogised assassinated Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who played a central role in the October 2023 massacre of 1,200 Israelis, as a “great national leader”.
Danon was scathing about Unrwa, which he said had “failed twice. They failed professionally, spending billions of dollars with no results. And they failed morally by allowing Hamas to infiltrate the organisation.”
Last month the Knesset passed legislation banning Unrwa from operating inside Israel, after exposing the organisation’s repeated involvement in terror activities. A week later, Israel ended its 1967 agreement recognising the body.
“After October 7 we showed Unrwa evidence but they ignored it. That’s why we decided not to continue to work with them anymore. We will work with other agencies but our focus is on humanitarian aid and not on spreading lies against Israel,” said Danon, who praised the US Congress for cutting off the flow of funds to the agency.
After serving at the UN for five years from 2015 to 2020, Danon returned to his position in August to defend Israel in what many view as the epicentre of the global campaign to smear the Jewish state.
With regards to Lebanon, Danon noted Israel’s allies’ efforts to strengthen the Lebanese Armed Forces in order to prevent Hezbollah from re-establishing a presence south of the Litani River, located 18 miles north of the border with Israel.
Danon also had a warning for the mullahs in Tehran – that Israel has shown its long arm can reach across the Islamic Republic. On October 26, Israel launched retaliatory strikes on Iran, targeting air defence and missile production sites. Axios has reported that the airstrikes also destroyed a secret nuclear weapons research facility in Parchin, 19 miles south-east of Tehran. The operation came after the Islamic Republic’s first-ever direct attack on the Jewish state in April, and another massive ballistic missile and drone assault at the beginning of October. Danon stressed the need for the international community to take a more active approach against the theocratic and genocide-preaching regime in Tehran. Despite working in the lion’s den of anti-Israel sentiment, Danon expressed appreciation for those “brave enough to look at the facts, ignore the noise and the hostility, as it speaks volume about their moral values.
“I can tell you that there are more countries that sometimes vote against us or abstain but come to me quietly and say their heart is with us,” he said. “I don’t think we are isolated, but I think we are living in challenging times. There are some countries that forgot very fast why the war against Hamas started and shifted to attacking Israel.
“Everyone has to always start with what happened, why we had to go into Gaza,” Danon added.
He also expressed concern about countries “hijacking” the UN Security Council to impose unfair solutions on the Jewish state.“I think in Lebanon we’ve made some progress on a ceasefire. The council’s involvement would not be productive. I think they should allow the sides to negotiate themselves and in Gaza as well,” he said. “Maybe, after we conclude the agreement with Lebanon, then we can come to the Security Council, amend Resolution 1701 [that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah] or implement a new resolution,” he added.
Danon thanked US President Joe Biden for America’s strong response to October 7 and ongoing support during the war. “The fact that he came to Israel so fast after the attacks speaks for itself,” Danon said. “We share the same values, same enemies, same future – and that’s why I am sure we will continue to work with the new [Trump] administration as well.”