UN Ambassador Danny Danon reflects on five years in the lion’s den
Danon, for his part, wasn’t born a diplomatic. In fact, he was very undiplomatic in his previous post as chairman of the Likud Central Committee. In that capacity, he waged a number of battles with Prime Minister Netanyahu on procedural matters, and even competed against him in the primaries for the party leadership. The bad blood between them reached a boiling pint in 2014, at the height of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. Danon, then the deputy defense minister, criticized the government’s handling of the fighting, and Netanyahu immediately dismissed him. But less than a year later, their relationship took a turn for the better, and Danon found himself on a plane to New York. At the time, there were a large number of senior Likud members expecting a promotion, and there were not enough jobs to distribute after the 2015 election. As such, Danon was offered the position of UN ambassador, which helped Netanyahu clear some space at the cabinet table.
It was not the first time a political insider was appointed as UN ambassador. From the 1990s, most of the ambassadors were sitting or former politicians, or people close to the foreign minister. Danon’s replacement, Gilad Erdan, also comes from the Likud, and has served as a government minister for the past decade.
Danon’s years in the UN were tumultuous, but not exceptionally so. Over the five years of his tenure, the security situation was largely quiet, and there was no significant military operation in Gaza or on the northern border. In other words, compared to the stormy years of 2006 (Second Lebanon War), 2009 (Operation Cast Lead and the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident), 2012 (Operation Pillar of Defense) and 2014 (Operation Protective Edge), Danon oversaw a relatively quiet period. He was able to focus on strengthening ties with moderate Arab nations, and those ties are slowly becoming more public, although they are still mostly managed in a sensitive, behind the scenes fashion. Those nations and Israel have a mutual interest: to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and for them, the Palestinian issue has become of secondary importance. That doesn’t mean that the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, or Oman will vote tomorrow with Israel on sovereignty, Jerusalem, negotiations with the Palestinians, and a range of other diplomatic matters. But it does mean that there is a channel of cooperation that is not visible, that diplomats like Danon in New York, Ron Dermer in Washington, and a number of senior officials in Jerusalem are nurturing far from the camera’s lens.
Danon also competed — and was chosen — to be the chairman of the United Nations Judiciary Committee. It was the first time an Israeli ambassador was appointed to such a senior position — and with the support of 109 nations in a secret ballot. The position triggered protests by a number of Arab nations, but Danon was hardly moved.
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