This past week-end was the Faith and Freedom Conference in Washington, DC where many conservative leaders and politicians gathered to share ideas and speeches. This writer took a few moments during the conference to talk with Danny Danon member of the 18th Israeli Knesset and represents the Likud party of Israel. He is also the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and compares himself to Eric Cantor in the U.S. House of Representatives to give Americans who are not familiar with the Israeli government a sense of his position. He currently chairs the Committee on Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora which also focuses on issues with the Israeli border. Our interview focused on the always confusing and seemingly unending conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Mr. Danon was specifically here in the U.S. to implore and ask the citizens of the U.S. to support Israel as he believes President Obama does not at this time. He came to that conclusion after President Obama asked Israel to return to the ’67 borders during a State Department speech in May, just a few weeks ago. Mr. Danon explained that he thinks the first issue is that the President is demanding the Israelis give up land to the Palestinians “without demanding the end of conflict.” Second, the issue of Jerusalem must be settled.
“He’s asking us to pay without receiving anything,” Mr. Danon explained in reference to the President’s recent requests to Israel to give up occupying the land taken by Israel in ’67 to protect the young state from attacks. This blogger asked if he planned to try and deal with President Obama anymore and he said “We talk to all Americans but to talk to Obama is not productive at this stage.” He also expressed a hopefulness that Americans in general would ask the President to be more supportive of Israel “to hear from Americans, it would affect him as well.”
This blogger had to ask why Mr. Danon was so concerned about the President’s suggestions – technically Israel doesn’t have to do anything the U.S. President says. But, the reality is something different “what the President said, it represents the American public. And indirectly, we hear remarks that if we do not respect of the opinion of this administration we cannot receive support for other interests.” So, one can see why Mr. Danon would be worried about his country and the future based on current events. Specifically, U.S. AID has made plans to turn over aquifers which supply scarce water to Israel over to Palestinian control.
And the U.S does share some common concerns with Israel, Mr. Danon is very concerned about Iran’s development of nuclear weapons. “They (Iran) are in the process of developing nuclear weapons and once they reach the point of no return, it will be hard to deal with-If God forbid they should develop a nuclear capability Iran poses a threat to all of western society like Al Qaeda,” he said. He noted that Al Qaeda did not start with Israel, they started with the U.S. when they chose to make a major attack.
Mr. Danon has spent time meeting privately with members of Congress in the past month whom he believes are supportive of Israel’s plight at this time. “I wanted to send a message to the Republican leadership to ask those who support Israel, we need them to speak out and talk to the White House,” he finished.
