EXCLUSIVE: Confronted by anti-Israel UN official, Ambassador Danny Danon fires back
Anti-Israel economist and policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs attempted to confront Israel’s United Nations envoy on Saturday following a U.N. Security Council meeting, in footage obtained exclusively by JNS.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon during a visit of U.N. Secretary General António Guterres at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem on Aug. 28, 2017. Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
Sachs, a Columbia University professor and adviser to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, regularly espouses anti-American and anti-West positions in media appearances, mixed with heavy criticism of Israeli government policies.
He has claimed on multiple occasions that the American government and congress is controlled by Zionists.
Russia and China requested that Sachs serve as a civil-society briefer at Saturday’s emergency council session on Iran.
Briefers are regularly called upon to provide independent, on-the-ground expertise to the Security Council, helping to shape policy. It’s unclear what expertise Sachs would have brought, as the United Kingdom, serving as council president, rejected the request.
In the video, taken from the floor of the council chamber, Danon can be heard saying after Sachs approached: “Mark my words. Every place, every time,” adding what sounds like, “We will protect your people.”
To which Sachs responded: “Esther and Auschwitz. Those are your two ideas. Very clever.”
The retort was in reference to comments Danon made during the council session, recounting the story of Purim, when “Queen Esther refused to remain silent” when Haman, a Persian minister, plotted to wipe out the Jews.
“She stepped forward. She spoke up,” Danon said, calling it “not only an ancient lesson. It is a modern one.”
He drew a parallel to his visit in recent days with dozens of U.N. ambassadors to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
“We stood in a place that shows what happens when radicalism and extremism grow and no one stops it in time,” said Danon. “Winston Churchill understood what Queen Esther understood long before him: When destruction is declared and weapons are being prepared and assembled, leaders must act.”
Danon finished the conversation, telling Sachs “you are welcome to support Iran and Hamas,” adding “you can fly there if you want to,” before Sachs walked away.
Sachs serves as head of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network and advises Guterres on related issues. He is also a commissioner of the U.N. Broadband Commission for Development.
Days before taking office last January, Trump shared on social media a clip of Sachs ranting against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him a “deep, dark son of a bitch” who drags the United States into “endless wars” thanks to the power of pro-Israel lobbying groups.
Trump never clarified his reasons for posting the video.
