MK Danny Danon

"For Knesset’s Danny Danon, unapologetic Israeli nationalism is key to political success"

By Uriel Heilman - 29/7/2012 - www.jta.org

If there’s one thing Danny Danon doesn’t do, it’s shy away from controversy.

Danon, a deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset and chairman of World Likud, has come under fire for describing African migrants in Israel as a “national plague,” for hosting controversial U.S. TV personality Glenn Beck at the Knesset and for demanding government investigations of left-wing NGOs.

Though Danon is in his first term in the Knesset, his profile is rising quickly on the Israeli political scene -- perhaps more than anything else because of his unapologetically nationalist vision for Israel’s future.

He wants Israel to annex all the Jewish-occupied and uninhabited land in the West Bank. He wants Palestinians living on the remainder of the West Bank to become part of Jordan, Egypt to take control of the Gaza Strip and the international community to reject the establishment of a Palestinian state on the west bank of the Jordan River (it’s fine by him if the Palestinians take over the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on the east bank). Danon does not believe in land for peace or the two-state solution.

Danon outlines his blueprint for Israel's future in a book due out in September, “Israel: The Will to Prevail," though the book focuses more on history than the details of the blueprint.

“I’m working very hard to present a different approach for the peace process,” Danon told JTA in a recent interview in his Knesset office. “Our goal should be to annex the maximum land with the minimum Arab population,” he said of the West Bank. “We should speak about our rights and not apologize for it. We have biblical rights, historical rights, rights according to international law. We also have common-sense rights: We won the war.”

While his ideas might seem far-fetched and antiquated -- a throwback to notions that haven’t been discussed with much seriousness since the pre-Oslo era -- Danon believes Israelis are warming to them.

“We live in the Middle East; everything is dynamic here. With time it can be feasible,” he said. “I don’t accept that my views are on the fringe. I do believe one day they will be accepted.”

Danon’s detractors fear this is becoming true – in Israel, at least.

“Ostensibly, one could even ignore the existence of this Likud backbencher, but little Danny Danon will be big, the sugar of the Israeli right," Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, a left-wing critic, wrote last summer. "So it's better to pay attention to him now rather than later.”

Israel to be Energy Independent

Israel is very much an isolated nation when it comes to energy. Until recently, Israel had virtually none of its own energy and was dependent on outside sources to even light a lightbulb.

This caused huge potential security problems for this small country. It imported coal and had an agreement with Egypt to supply oil and natural gas, making it vulnerable to changing and hostile Mid East political turmoil.

The recent removal of Hosni Mubarrak, Egypt's long term leader and friend of Israel, saw the reins of power change. Almost immediately friction began between the countries. The pipeline from Egypt’s natural gas fields to supply Israel was sabotaged more than 14 times, making it unusable.

In April, the new regime in Egypt, by now headed by the Muslim Brotherhood, decided to cancel the long term natural gas supply contract with Israel.

This could have been a devastating blow, possibly forcing a war for energy, a nations lifeblood. But in a dramatic, almost biblical turn of events, Israel had been rescued from the Egyptian decree by the discovery of huge natural gas fields off its coast.

The size of this discovery turns Israel into a long term, energy independent country. They have more than enough gas to become an energy exporter. This is game changing and history making at the same time…..As though a hand again parted the water to rescue the Israelis.

When I asked Danny Danon about this huge turn of events, his response was: “We were very lucky when we found the gas and within a year we expect to be transferring the gas from the sea into our power grid".

Danon expects to see his country become a major exporter of gas to its neighbors, as well as Europe. Israel will no longer need to import coal or gas for its power. Danon "hopes that Israel’s cutting edge technology companies will find a way to get it off the use of oil to power its cars." His aim is to "have the tech able to transform the countries fleet of cars to electric power and not have to import a drop of oil, since they will have an abundance of electric generation."

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MK Danon's interview with FOX New's Megyn Kelly on the Iranian threat

Free Jonathan Pollard / USA TODAY

By Danny Danon | USAToday.com | February 26, 2013

All of us here in Israel welcomed wholeheartedly the announcement by the White House that President Obama will visit Israel next month. Over the past two years, the president has made critical policy decisions that have enhanced Israel's security. Now, it is my hope that the president will use his upcoming trip not only to meet our political leaders, but to forge a bond with the people of Israel. The best way to do this is to finally pardon Jonathan Pollard, a U.S. citizen convicted of spying for Israel, and allow him to come home to Israel ahead of the presidential visit in March. This would not only right an historic wrong, but will also serve to remove an unfortunate stain from an otherwise close American-Israeli relationship.

Earlier in his presidency, Obama made a number of decisions that some of us felt were not helpful in terms of our geopolitical standing and strengthening our negotiating position with our neighbors. Thankfully, during the second half of his first term it seems that he began to chart a new course. The Obama administration stood resolutely by Israel's side at the United Nations as the Palestinians attempted to nullify our signed agreements by forcing a vote on unilateral statehood. Similarly he has joined the US congress in placing – and enforcing – biting sanctions that are aimed at curtailing the Iranian nuclear program.

Nevertheless, the feeling persisted here that President Obama has not connected with Israelis on a visceral and emotional level. While the steps the president has taken over the past two years have helped reassure leaders in Israel about the president's intentions, a pardon for Jonathan Pollard would go a long way in showing the Israeli people where his heart lays.

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"The new face of Likud"

By MATTI FRIEDMAN - TimesOfIsrael.com

One of the most important events in Danny Danon's life happened in 1969, two years before he was born.

That was the year Joseph Danon, a 29-year-old army reservist, was pursuing a Palestinian guerrilla cell in the Jordan Valley. When battle was joined, one of the Palestinians threw a grenade and Danon was hit by shrapnel. He emerged from a coma after several months, having suffered a serious head wound. He was rendered permanently deaf.

Many of Danny Danon's childhood memories are of serving as his father's interpreter at banks and government offices and of going on hikes across the country and then reporting back to their home in Ramat Gan, describing the routes and the landscapes to his father, once an avid hiker himself but now too infirm to come along.

"We would re-enact the hike at home," Danon said in a recent interview. "Despite his injury, he managed to get across the message of knowing the country and loving the country."

Danon began reading books about the underground groups that fought the British in pre-state Palestine, and learned the sites of battles from David and Goliath to the Yom Kippur War. That, he says, gave him a strong connection to the geography of Israel. Interpreting for his father, he said, "gave me the confidence to speak and argue and say what I think."

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Danon