‘I Come Back at a Time of Immense Challenge’: Danny Danon Returns to UN for Second Stint as Israel’s Ambassador

Danon on Monday submitted his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

By Ben Rappaport, United with Israel

Danny Danon has returned to service as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, replacing outgoing ambassador Gilad Erdan after previously serving in the position from 2015 to 2020.

In doing so, Danon becomes the first Israeli diplomat to serve twice as ambassador to the UN.

Submitting on Monday his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Danon noted, “I come back to the UN at the time of immense challenge for the people of Israel and the country of Israel.”

“Israel is under attack on seven fronts. As we speak, 115 Israelis are still being held in captivity. There are ongoing atrocities they are suffering there.

“I hope that the UN will present the moral clarity required to face such evils that we are facing today,” he said.

“I stand proud and tall, and I’m committed to represent my country, to show the real face of Israel and to push back the lies and hypocrisy that we unfortunately have to deal here in this building,” Danon added.

Speaking to the Jerusalem Post last week, Danon noted that, after 10 months of war in Gaza and along the northern Israeli border, he returns to “a different UN, and a different situation, than the one [he] left here four years ago.”

“The atmosphere is very hostile,” he explained. “In the past, it was a few ambassadors. Today, unfortunately, we see many countries joining the efforts to isolate us, and our goal is to explain what we are doing, why we are doing it, and maintain the support we have from the countries that understand the challenges we face.”

Danon said that “Palestinian” efforts at the UN to turn Israel into a pariah state must be taken seriously.

“Look at the language they are using: ‘genocide’ – it is not genocide; ‘starvation’ – there is no starvation; ‘apartheid.’ That is their goal.

“If we are not here to fight back, it will be easier for them to spread those lies and try to get to a point where countries apply sanctions against Israel – weapons embargoes and many other tools that were used against South Africa,” he noted.

“That is why it is important to be in the room, to explain to the ambassadors and heads of state whom we are fighting, and why we are fighting, to defend ourselves,” Danon continued.

“I think it is an important fight. It is not easy; you are not going to win overnight. You have to deal with it every morning. You have to fight. The same way we have patrols on the northern and southern borders, we have to deal also with the diplomatic borders.”

Danon, who served in the Knesset from 2009 to 2015 and reentered the Knesset in 2022, said that, before October 7, he wouldn’t have imagined himself serving another stint at the UN.

“If you asked me when I left the UN in 2020 if I would come back here, I would have said ‘never, not in my lifetime.’ But October 7 changed a lot within all of us.”

“I think now I can do more here fighting for Israel rather than being in the Knesset,” he added.