Danon against int’l troops on Temple Mount

Israel’s recently installed Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Friday that the UN Security Council does not need another general discussion of the situation in Israel but rather an emergency discussion on the “wild incitement” by Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, which, he said, encourages a wave of terror attacks against Israelis.

Danon was speaking at a Security Council session called urgently to discuss the security situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Danon accused Abbas for evading negotiations that could quickly de-escalate tensions, when “only yesterday” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would be willing to renew talks without preconditions in order to restore the calm. Instead of traveling the “20-minute ride” from Ramallah to Jerusalem, the Palestinians again turn to the UN, he said.

The ambassador presented a Palestinian poster that describes the most efficient way to stab Jews and said the Palestinian leadership was running a greenhouse for terrorism, when it could educate Palestinian children on the values of peace and tolerance. The Palestinian education system, he said, manufactures “an entire generation of child terrorists.”

He opposed the idea to deploy international troops at the Temple Mount, since this would violate the decades-long status quo there. Danon also charged that the Palestinians use the Temple Mount as an excuse to avoid making important decisions on the future of their people.

If the international community is genuinely committed to promoting peace and tolerance, Danon said, the UN Security Council must unequivocally condemn the incitement fueling terrorism. The UN body should support direct negotiations, added the ambassador, and the durable peace agreements Israel shares with Egypt and Jordan are the proof that direct negotiations between the parties are the only path to reaching calm in the region.

Danon’s words to the Security Council come less than a week since he took up the position. Previously the Likud member was an MK and the government’s minister of science.