By Donald H. Harrison

As Israel's chief spokesman in Los Angeles, the second largest media market in the United States, Israel's Consul-General Ehud Danoch is used to commenting on the breaking news stories of the Middle East.  And, he wasn't shy about denouncing the "moral equivalency" drawn in the movie Munich between Palestinian terrorists and the Israeli forces who hunted them down.

In that Danoch is a former chief of staff to Israel Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, you might say that the give and take of international diplomacy and of ten-second media sound bites is second nature to him. But, he said during a round of visits in San Diego yesterday, he'd rather have the opportunity to tell university students in the United States about things that they don't see on the news about Israel.

Like what, for example?  I asked, after catching up with him during a day that he had meetings in San Diego with, among others,  two Jewish members of the local congressional delegation—Bob Filner and Susan Davis—as well as with United Jewish Federation Executive Vice President Michael Rassler and with Leslie Caspi, the incoming regional chair of AIPAC, and her husband Shlomo.


Israel's Consul-General Ehud Danoch shmoozes with Leslie & Shlomo Caspi

"If you think about it, the past years every time that you watched CNN, MSNBC, whatever channel of television, when you heard "Israel," you heard "Israel-Palestinians, Arab World conflict—always!" Danoch said.

"There are many other issues that are beyond this," he added. "It is important also for students to know that we have a part in the voice mail, and that an Israeli company was a part of the group that invented the "chat room" on the internet, for example.  It is important for people to understand the contribution of Israel to humanity."

"For example," he said, warming to his subject over a cup of coffee, "we work with Africa, with Latin America.  We send our specialists to Latin America to teach them irrigation and we bring delegations from South America to Israel. They spend 80 hours—three weeks—and we have special courses for them.  The same thing for Africa.  We do everything voluntarily.  We think these issues are important because they bring together communities."

Danoch said to drive home such points, his Consulate-General plans to bring to university campuses in his seven Western state regions representatives of Israeli industry as well as Israeli entertainers.  "When we bring them, they will come to Los Angeles, to San Diego, to San Francisco, and all over."

Beyond that, he said, the consulate wants to sponsor appearances by members of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, on university campuses.  Also, "if I would know that Professor (Israel) Aumann, who received just now the Nobel Prize for economics, is going to come to the United States, we would do our best to bring him to speak in our jurisdiction."

Of Yemenite Jewish background, Danoch was born in Ashkelon and lived in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Montreal, Canada.  He later studied at Manchester University, England,where he received both an MBA and a law degree. He put both skills to work as an attorney whose private practice focused on corporate and finance law, and business litigation.

A reserve captain in the Israeli military, he initially was tapped for civilian government service in Israel's Finance Ministry, where Shalom served as the minister.  Later when Shalom changed portfolios, Danoch went with him, becoming his top aide.

While Danoch had wide experience as a ministry insider, his current position as a consul-general gives him some overseas diplomatic experience that some say is a requisite for a man of 35 considered to have a bright future ahead of him.  

Danoch described his meetings with Rassler and the two members of Congress as "informative and insightful," adding he expected they would strengthen  working relationships can be built.  Agreeing, Rassler noted he soon will be taking a trip to Ethiopia and Israel, and hopes upon his return to discuss impressions with Danoch.  Of particular interest to Rassler is building programs to expose members of the San Diego Jewish community to Israel.

The Caspis hosted the consul-general at a private dinner at which they discussed AIPAC's plans for year, including a bruch with Gidi Grinstein on Sunday, April 2, at the Hilton Torrey Pines. Grinstein, an Israel-Wexner fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, served in the office of Prime Minister Ehud Barak and, according to Leslie Caspi, was "the youngest member of the Israeli delegation" at the unsuccessful Camp David negotiations in the waning days of U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration.