Former Israeli envoy to NY says Trump Heights ‘an embarrassment’

The-consul general of Israel in New York Dani Dayan at the Celebrate Israel Parade, June 2, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
The-consul general of Israel in New York Dani Dayan at the Celebrate Israel Parade, June 2, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

Dani Dayan, a right-wing settler leader who spent much of the last four years as Israel’s consul general in New York, expresses some shame over Israel’s close ties to US President Donald Trump in the wake of the deadly storming of the US Capitol Building by a pro-Trump mob.

Dayan says Trump may have been a “diplomatic miracle” for Israel, but was a “wreck for American democracy.”

Noting that he could not speak his mind when he was a diplomat, he says Israel’s decision to name a town after Trump in the Golan Heights was a “step too far and even embarrassing.”

“Now, of course, that we’ll be left with a town called Trump Heights is very embarrassing,” he says.

He also says the only thing that surprises him about the violence is that it took so long after the election, and that it occurred where it did. “I admit I did not think it was possible there would be an outbreak inside the congressional chamber.”

Dayan says that while he didn’t think Israel’s partisan approach to the US during the Trump era was a smart play, he changed his mind after seeing what “dividends” the friendship brought in, likely referring to the administration’s support for settlement building, annexation and other goodies.

He calls Joe Biden “the best Democrat we could have gotten as US president.”

 

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