The left are frothing at the mouth at the appointment of Minister Danny Danon as Israel’s Ambassador to the UN. Primarily, because he’s a rightwing ideologue, and will unapologetically represent the views of the majority of Israel’s citizens and of the current government of Israel.
The left not only hates those views, they simply can’t understand how any positions other than capitulation can be defensible to the world.
Some on the right are complaining too, considering Danon to be a thorn in Netanyahu’s side, and this is Netanyahu’s way of getting rid of his political problem, at the expense of making a nondiplomatic appointment to an critical position.
But they’re both wrong.
The Left, brought us the Oslo disaster and its subsequent terror attacks, the recent Lebanon wars, the Disengagement and the Gaza wars. There’s no need to rebut their worldview. They’ve done it for themselves.
And besides, they froth at the mouth at every rightwing appointment.
For the Right, they need to consider something important. Only two people have truly and successfully challenged Prime Minister Netanyahu over the years for leadership of the Likud, Moshe Feiglin and Danny Danon.
While Feiglin successfully challenged Netanyahu by bringing his followers into the Likud from the outside, Danon managed to work inside the existing institutions, convincing Netanyahu’s own Likud people to join his team instead.
Repeatedly Netanyahu found Danon ruling the very same internal Likud institutions where Netanyahu should have been the unchallenged leader.
It’s precisely the fact that Danon managed to be a thorn in Netanyahu’s side, building up a strong coalition of followers, right under Netanyahu’s watchful gaze, indicates Danon’s ability to quietly organize and convince people to follow him.
Our former Foreign Minister, Avigdor Liberman proved that Right-leaning diplomats, working behind the scenes, confident in our country’s political positions were able to convince other countries to vote and stand with us in the international arena.
Danon sees himself as a contender for the position of Prime Minister. I suspect Netanyahu sees that potential in Danon too. There are many similarities between the two of them.
It’s no coincidence that Danny Danon reminds people of the young Bibi Netanyahu.
The fact that Danon was able to outplay Netanyahu in his own playground, proves Danon has the skills and capabilities that will be useful in the backrooms of the UN, quietly building up coalitions that will support Israel, while forcefully defending Israel at the podium, from a position of strength.
Netanyahu appointing Danon isn’t about getting rid of a thorn, it’s about preparing another qualified candidate. A potential leader who Netanyahu may dislike now because of the challenges he creates, but one who Netanyahu also trusts over the long term because of his unwavering ideology and skills — for the inevitable day when Netanyahu decides to step down.