No. 45: Danny Danon and Ofir Akunis: The diplomats of the Jewish state

Veteran Likud politicians-turned-diplomats Danny Danon and Ofir Akunis are among the more public faces of Israel’s battle against rising antisemitism on the global stage in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Danon took up the mantle of Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York this summer after having already represented his country at the UN from 2015 to 2020. He is the first Israeli diplomat to have returned to the position for the second time.

From this high-profile seat, he will present Israel’s case to the world in an atmosphere of increasing delegitimization as the Palestinian Authority and Arab countries seek to strip Israel of its right to self-defense, including against Iranian proxy groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

In a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post, Danon said, “The atmosphere is very hostile. 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.”

Akunis took up his post as Israel’s consul general in New York in April, at the height of the anti-Israel protests across college campuses in the United States. Akunis, Israel’s representative to the largest Jewish community in the United States, is on a mission to tell the world the truth about the Jewish state and push back against false narratives, including on college campuses such as Columbia University. “I think that justice is on our side. We are the good that needs to defeat evil. We are the speakers of truth who need to defeat falsehoods,” he told the Post.