Far Right-Winger Named as Israel’s New UN Envoy
Image by getty images
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Danny Danon, a hardliner from Netanyahu’s Likkud party, as ambassador to the United Nations.
Danon’s appointment, which was announced Friday, is meant to allow him to fight for the truth, Netanyahu said in a statement.
“The U.N. is an important forum right now and I am convinced that Danny will fight with all his power to present the truth in the international arena,” Netanyahu’s statement read.
Netanyahu and Danon – a firebrand who has called to reopen the Temple Mount to Jewish worship and has called boycotts against Israel “modern-day anti-Semitism” – have had a tense relationship.
Last year, Netanyahu fired Danon from the post of deputy defense minister after Danon publicly criticized Netanyahu for not taking firmer military action against Hamas during Israel’s summer offensive against the group in Gaza. After his dismissal, Danon lambasted Netanyahu’s “leftist flaccid attitude,” as he termed it.
At the U.N. headquarters in New York, Danon will replace Ron Prosor, who is widely credited in Israel for his performance at the organization, where Israel is often singled out for criticism, but where it has recently clinched some precedent-setting roles.
Israel’s Channel 2 this week reported that Netanyahu is considering appointing Mark Regev, a spokesperson of the Prime Minister’s Office under Netanyahu, to serve as ambassador in Britain.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
