Israel’s UN Ambassador Danon: Israel Has Secret Admirers in a Hostile Place

JERUSALEM, Israel - Israel is often condemned and berated on the world stage but privately many nations appreciate and even admire the Jewish State, said Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon.

“I came from the Knesset, like many places in the world, in the Knesset people publicly will say good things about you and behind closed doors it’s not always the same,” Danon told foreign journalists in Jerusalem on Thursday. 

“And in the UN it’s exactly the opposite.  Publicly people say bad things about Israel but behind closed doors they appreciate, even admire Israel,” Danon said. 

Danon revealed he is building relationships with ambassadors whose countries don’t have diplomatic relations with Israel.

“My challenge…is to close that gap and to ask them, push them to publicly recognize Israel,” he said.

Danon offered as proof the fact that he recently ran for chairman of one of the UN’s six committees and he won the position.  In a secret ballot, he received 109 votes of member states, becoming the first Israeli ever to chair a UN committee.

“It shows (that) in secret they support us and vote for us. The challenge is now to get them to do it publicly,” he added.

Danon is in Israel leading a delegation of 40 UN ambassadors on a five-day tour of Israel. 

This week, I took dozens of #UN ambassadors to visit death camps in Poland, to witness one of the darkest period in human history. These ambassadors will share their experiences, keeping alive the victims' stories. We now travel to #Israel,the place that guarantees "Never Again!" pic.twitter.com/yJwpjYPfEZ

— Ambassador Danny Danon | דני דנון (@dannydanon) January 30, 2019

Their first stop was Poland where they visited the Majdanek death camp and the Jewish Museum in Warsaw.

“It was a very emotional day for all of us, walking in the snow,” Danon said.

The ambassadors are scheduled to meet with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  They are also scheduled to visit Israel’s northern border and examine one of the Hezbollah cross-border attack tunnels recently exposed by Israel.

“For us, it’s a great opportunity to show them what’s really happening.  We speak a lot about Israel at the UN.  To get the ambassadors to come here, it’s important,” Danon said.

Danon believes bringing the ambassadors to actually see Israel has a big impact on them.

“I can testify from my own experience when I bring ambassadors to Israel many of them do change their mind,” Danon told CBN News.  “Some of them just don’t know better.  They are ignorant and when they come here they learn the facts on the ground.”