Israel's UN Envoy: "We Shattered a Glass Ceiling"

(Ynet News) Tzipi Shmilovitz - Israel's ambassador at the UN, Danny Danon, said that in the past year "we made breakthroughs and did things that have never been done before by Israelis at the UN....I came here with the perception that we all have in Israel, that the entire world is against us and that I am coming to joust with windmills, but I learned that you can sometimes win here....For example, my election as chairman of the Legal Committee, one of the six UN committees. This is a huge victory. It's the first time since Israel joined the UN that its ambassador chairs a permanent committee." "There was obviously a strong countercampaign. Iran, for example, sent a letter to the Non-Aligned Movement, saying Israel cannot chair the committee....In the end, Singapore jumped in and when India joined and issued a letter opposing the Iranians, it destroyed them....109 states voted for me in a secret vote....Today, I enter a room of 193 states and I chair the discussion. I am the one who lets the Iranian representative speak, who manages conflicts which are unrelated to Israel. We shattered a real glass ceiling." Q: Will there be a move regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the UN after the U.S. elections? Danon: "I sat with the foreign minister of a Western state who said, 'Clearly, nothing will happen until the elections because the Americans won't go with us, but after the elections we'll try to lead a move.' It could be a condemnation of the construction in Judea and Samaria or setting parameters - in other words, determining the results of the negotiations for us, which won't work of course. From my conversations with the Americans, there are no such plans at the moment, but there is a discourse."


2016-10-28 00:00:00

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