MK Danon: Be not afraid, Israel

We should “not be afraid to accept a decision to benefit the Jewish nation [and not say] it is not a good time,” Deputy Israeli Minister of Defense Danny Danon told The Jewish Star.

If Israel had listened to the naysayers, Danon said, the State would not have been declared in 1948 and Jerusalem would not have been freed in 1967.

Danon spoke in Hebrew in an exclusive interview with the Star, before briefly addressing the Central Park Bandshell concert on Sunday. The large turnout for the concert and the Celebrate Israel Parade demonstrated overwhelming support for Israel of Jews from a wide range of groups, both Jewish and gentile, he said.

He discussed various issues in the news in Israel, emphasizing the importance of dealing with the Chareidim with kiruv (drawing them closer through dialogue and not with conflict). “We must speak with them in another language” than we are now using, he said.

He insisted on the need for Arabs to do community service as well.

Israel is currently experiencing a housing crisis, Danon said. It is “important to deal with it, to open land and help Israelis buy homes in Israel.”

With the instability in Syria, Danon said he hoped that the body of Israeli spy Eli Cohen would be returned to Israel, and that information about the four missing in action Israelis — Ron Arad, Zechariah Baumel, Tzvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz — might be made available. The longer they are missing the less likely they are to be found, he said.

It is “important to stand with Israel, even if it is not popular,” he emphasized.

“People must stand with Israel and should continue to do this. Come visit, for vacations, studies, trips and come on Aliyah,” he added. “It strengthens us.”

Thousands at the concert cheered when Danon stepped up to the microphone and called out “Shalom m’Yerushalayim!” (Shalom from Jerusalem). He said that the “nation of Israel is strong, there are Jewish satellites in the sky developed in Israel.”

“Israel will do what they need to defend the Jewish people,” he said. “People tell me ‘we love Eretz Yisrael’,” and show “unconditional support.”

The “real threat is Iran,” he said. “We will not allow Iran to become nuclear, with or without the U.N., with or without bunker busters.”

Danon recalled that Israel was condemned when then Prime Minister Menachem Begin (a”h) bombed the Osirak reactor in Iraq. Danon gave a blessing to the “pioneers —our brothers and sisters in Yehuda and Shomron” — and said that the towns of Eli and Shilo are the real Iron Dome (Israel’s missile defense system). Going “back to the ’67 lines will not happen. Eretz Yisrael belongs to Am Yisrael.”