Danny Danon


Danny Danon is an Israeli politician and diplomat serving as Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations since 2024, and previously from 2015 to 2020. A member of the Likud party, he served in the Knesset from 2009 to 2015 and from 2022 to 2024. The former leader of the world Betar organization, Danon was elected Chairman of the World Likud. Considered a "right-wing thorn in Netanyahu's side", Danon challenged Benjamin Netanyahu for the party's leadership in 2007 and 2014.
First elected to the Knesset in the 2009 election, Danon served as Deputy Minister of Defense, which coincided with the outbreak of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. He was ultimately fired by Netanyahu for criticizing the Prime Minister's willingness to accept a proposed ceasefire. In 2015, Danon was appointed to serve as Minister of Science, Technology and Space.
Danon became Israel's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in 2015, and made history in 2016 by being the first Israeli elected chair of the UN's Legal Committee. In his capacity, Danon supported the United States' recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel in 2017, and criticized supporters of UN General Assembly Resolution ES-10/19 as "puppets pulled by the strings of the Palestinian puppet masters." Danon left the position in 2020, and was replaced by Gilad Erdan.
Following his tenure at the UN, Danon re-entered Israeli politics, and was elected to the Knesset in the 2022 election. In a 2021 interview, Danon indicated that he would be interested in pursuing leadership of the Likud party in the future. In August 2024, Danon returned as Israel's Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

Early life and education

Danon was born in Ramat Gan to Joseph and Yoheved Danon. His father, Joseph Danon, was born in Egypt, and moved to Israel in 1950. Joseph was severely wounded by shrapnel in the Jordan Valley during the War of Attrition. This caused him to enter a coma and after recovering suffered brain damage and was permanently deaf for the remainder of his life. Despite this Danon maintained a close bond with his father and would often advocate for him when his father's disability prevented him from doing so himself. Danon attended Blich High School and was a member of the Betar youth movement.
In 1989, he was drafted into the army and completed his officer's course with distinction. He served as an officer in the Education Corps and was released with the rank of captain. In his final military posting, he served as an officer in the Marva unit, a military program for Jews from around the world to strengthen ties to Israel.
He earned a bachelor's degree in international affairs from the Florida International University, and a master's degree in public policy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After his national service in the IDF between 1989 and 1993, Danon was sent to Miami by the Jewish Agency. When Danon was 23, his father died from complications related to his injuries.

Early political career

Danon's time as an emissary for the Jewish Agency had a big impact on his life; it was the first stepping stone in his choice to enter public service. Upon his return to Israel, Danon served as an adviser to the Chair of the Knesset Foreign affairs and Defense Committee, MK Uzi Landau.
When he was 28 years old, Danon was elected Chair of the World Betar Movement. His responsibilities included managing the administrative, financial, and educational aspects of the organization in Israel and abroad, and encouraging aliyah.
From 2004 to 2009, Danon served as the chairman of the Likud faction in the World Zionist Organization. His responsibilities included encouraging aliyah to Israel and combating antisemitism. Danon also served on the board of directors of the Jewish Agency, establishing policy, goals and monitoring the work of the Agency.
In the run-up to the 2006 legislative election, Danon was the 23rd spot on Likud's list in the party primaries. However, the party won only 12 seats in the general election, and Danon did not enter the Knesset.
In June 2006, Danon was elected chairman of the World Likud organization, defeating Yuval Steinitz MK for the position. During this period, Danon was active against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan during the referendum conducted by the latter in the Likud party's central committee.

2007 leadership campaign and aftermath

In July 2007, Danon, described as one of Benjamin Netanyahu's biggest critics from within the Likud, declared his candidacy for the party's leadership. He eventually finished third in a primary election held that August.
In 2008, Danon filed a petition to the Israeli High Court of Justice to rescind the citizenship of former MK Azmi Bishara, who fled Israel after he was suspected of aiding Hezbollah, an enemy organization of Israel, during the 2006 Lebanon War. The petition was rejected.

First tenure in the Knesset (2009–2015)

18th Knesset

On 8 December 2008, Danon was elected to the twenty-fourth place on the Likud slate for the upcoming election. In the 2009 election election, the Likud party won 27 seats, and Danon was sworn in as a Member of the Knesset.
During this term, MK Danon served as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and Chair of the Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs. These positions presented Danon with the opportunities to promote legislation in a variety of fields. In addition to the committees that he chaired, Danon was also a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Finance Committee, the Education, Culture and Sports Committee, the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and the Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality.
Legislation that Danon promoted included laws granting widows of fallen Israeli security personnel and terror attack victims the rights to receive grants from the government. He also promoted a law in which ensured that pardoned convicts who committed a crime during their parole period would automatically be re-imprisoned. In addition, Danon passed a law that limited the promotion and advertisement of alcoholic beverages, and a law that set minimum weight requirements for the modeling industry and required advertisers to disclose whether Photoshop was used in their ads.
In an August 2011 interview with Teymoor Nabili on Al Jazeera English, Danon said "There is place only for one state on the land of Israel.... I do not believe in a two-state solution."

Member of the 19th Knesset – Deputy Minister of Defense

Danon was chosen for the fifth placement on the Likud list for the 2013 Israeli legislative election, which determined the composition of the 19th Knesset. He was reelected and went on to be appointed Deputy Minister of Defense.
During his term, Danon focused on increasing enlistment to the IDF from the Christian, and the Ultra-Orthodox and Ethiopian Jewish communities, bettering the service conditions of reservists, establishing criteria for financial benefits for the security forces, and decreasing the number of military drop-outs. In June 2013, Danon was elected Chair of the Likud Party Central Committee, with 85% of the votes.

Removal as Deputy Minister and 2014 leadership election

On 15 July 2014, Danon was dismissed as Deputy Minister of Defense position by Prime Minister Netanyahu after publicly criticizing his conduct and his willingness to accept a truce with Hamas during the 2014 Gaza War.
Danon submitted his candidacy for the 2014 Likud leadership election on 8 December 2014. Upon announcing his leadership candidacy, Danon stated that "In the past few years, the Likud movement has gone astray." Danon was the only candidate to run against Netanyahu in the election, and received 19% of the vote versus the incumbent.

Member of the 20th Knesset – Minister of Science, Technology and Space

In December 2014, Danon placed 9th in the Likud's internal primary for the 2015 legislative election. After Likud won the 2015 election, Danon was appointed Minister of Science, Technology and Space in Netanyahu's new government.
One of the first decisions Danon made after his appointment as Minister of Science, Technology and Space, was to designate the upcoming year as the year of Pioneering Women in Science and Technology. Danon also led efforts to increase awareness for science, technology and space among the residents of developing cities in Israel, by increasing the number of science-focused summer camps. Danon led negotiations with the Ministry of Finance and succeeded in increasing his Ministry's budget by 20%.
During his time in office, Danon dealt with strengthening ties and cooperation between countries and companies around the world. In June 2015, he signed a cooperation agreement with Lockheed Martin on promoting science, technology and space among children. He also visited the Sesame Particle Accelerator in Jordan, which Israel is participating in, to broaden the cooperation between the two states.
Danon served in this position until 27 August 2015, when Prime Minister Netanyahu appointed him as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN.

Legislative accomplishments

During his tenure in the Knesset, Danon initiated the enactment of the following laws:
  • "Weight Limitation Law" : To protect models working in the modeling industry, the law states that underweight models are not allowed to appear in advertisements within Israel. In addition, if graphic editing software is used to control the size of the model, the advertiser will be required to add a caption that takes up at least 7% of the advertisement space to reference this graphical adjustment.
  • "Limitations of Marketing Alcoholic Beverages": This law prohibits any advertisement of alcoholic beverages on materials such as billboards and printed items that are intended to be viewed by minors. In addition, alcoholic beverages should not be offered as prizes in television or radio programs for minors and minors are forbidden to be involved in any form of advertising for intoxicants.
  • Amendment to the "Youth Working Law", which prohibits the employment of children in blatant advertising.
  • Amendment to the "National Health Insurance Law", which expanded the level of government funding for medical treatment eligibility to children on the autistic spectrum.
  • Amendment to the "Weapon's Law," which lowers the age needed to enter and use a shooting range.