Thursday’s vote at the UN General Assembly against the United States’ recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was “another session of Israel bashing, but this time it was Israel and the U.S.,” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told Fox News . At the same time, he noted, “The Palestinians expected to see more countries accusing the U.S. and Israel of creating instability but it didn’t happen. 65 countries did not support this resolution. It was a shorter session that what we expected.” “We need to move on,” said Danon. “We need to start talking directly with the Palestinians, but unfortunately the Palestinians like to come to the UN, they like to have these debates, long speeches. It’s not helpful. We believe in direct negotiations, not in what we just saw in the General Assembly.” Asked why countries such as Japan, Ireland, France and Great Britain were among the 128 countries that voted in favor of the resolution, Danon replied, “I’m used to that. You have a public UN and a private UN. Publicly they will speak against Israel, [but] privately when I speak with those ambassadors, they know that we are a strong democracy, they appreciate Israel, they even admire Israel.” He pointed out that the countries whose ambassadors spoke at Thursday’s session were from places such as North Korea, Syria and Yemen. “Those ‘great democracies’ come to preach to the U.S. and Israel what to do. It’s absurd. It’s ridiculous. It’s pathetic, but we are strong. We will continue to work with our American allies. We are grateful to President Trump [and] to Ambassador Haley for taking the right stand and supporting Israel. When we look at history, we know that when you take the right stand, it pays off. President Truman did it in 1948. President Trump did it in 2017.”
