The former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, has written that the latest ambassador chosen by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to represent Israel at the United Nations is an extremist.
Netanyahu has tapped Danny Danon, a rightwing zealot who even the New York Times is honest about: “an ambitious, headline-grabbing young politician who has called for Israel to annex all West Bank settlements, annul the Oslo Peace Accords and allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.”
Michael Oren writes in his new book Ally that he was enraged in 2011 when the New York Times published a piece on the peace process by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Oren sought to counter the piece with an article by Israeli president Shimon Peres.
But it was a measure of the NYT’s “malicious” intent toward Israel that instead it ran an article by Danny Danon, calling for Israel to annex the West Bank.
Oren learned about the Times’s plan ahead of time and was upset.
A rightist who opposed the two-state solution, Danon would only make Israel look more extreme, I knew, which is perhaps what [NYT editorial page editor Andrew] Rosenthal wanted. “Hold off on Danon,” I urged the editor. “I’ll get you the Peres piece in time to go to press tomorrow.”
But in an act of “chicanery,” the Times published Danon’s article.
Oren, now a member of the Israeli parliament, is a fierce apologist for everything that Israel does. But even he must be disturbed that his Prime Minister is doing everything in his power to “make Israel look more extreme.”
This once again, only shows just how arrogant Netanyahu is, he just does not give a damn about the consequences of such an appointment, and he also seems to care less about the image Israel has, and will continue to have, with Danon representing Israel. Either he is too dumb to realize it, or just does not care. I think the latter. Danny boy seems to be an extremist, and if Israel wants his face and reputation, to represent the zionists, then it is a good choice. Whoever the representative is, they can never change the negative image Israel has in the world, and people will continue to dislike them.
Danon is simply honest. He says what he believes.
The end effect is the same, right wing or left wing. Only the so called “Zionist camp” are better at using muddled language and selling the world the illusion of civility while maintaining the same exact policies. It was the labor governments that oversaw huge parts of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
This is why the great victories of the right in Israel has been a PR boon to the Palestinians, not because they are any different, but because they don’t care who knows how they really are.
So two Israeli extremists* walk into the UN. One turns to the other and says, “You make Israel look bad.” The other one says…
What a joke. What’s the punchline? Maybe the joke is the punchline.
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*Is that redundant or what?
It is amazing to me that a politician who advocates permanent and enlarged Apartheid is referred to as “right-wing” and “hawkish” in 2015.
In the eyes of the NYT, Jewish Apartheid is not really Apartheid.
It’s a gift.
Everything that ups the crazy is a gift.