Danny Ayalon

Israeli diplomat, columnist and politician

Daniel "Danny" Ayalon (; born ) is an Israeli diplomat, columnist and politician. He served as Deputy Foreign Minister and as a member of the Knesset. He was the Israeli Ambassador to the United States from 2002 until 2006. Previously, he worked as senior foreign policy advisor to Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon, Ehud Barak, and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Danny Ayalon was born in Tel Aviv in 1955. His late mother Lily Ellon immigrated to Mandatory Palestine from Poland in 1937, thereby escaping the Holocaust, in which members of her extended family perished. His father, Rafael Ayalon, immigrated from Algeria to Mandatory Palestine before the establishment of Israel in 1948. Both of his parents fought in the War of Independence, 1948 Arab–Israeli War. His mother fought in the War of Independence in Jerusalem, and was wounded in battle, and his father fought in the Golani Brigade. Ayalon was raised and educated in Tel Aviv and was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces where he rose to the rank of captain in the Armored Corps. He received a BA in economics from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Prior to his career in public service, Ayalon was a partner at Gravitas Ltd., an international consulting group, past president of private investment firm Hod Ayalon Ltd, and a finance manager for Koor Industries. Ayalon is married to Anne Ayalon, who is from an American Evangelical Christian family. Ayalon met her while she was on internship in Israel, and she converted to Judaism. The couple has two daughters, Zohar and Avigail.

Ayalon was a member of the Israeli delegations to Sharm el Sheikh (1997), Wye Plantation (1998) and Camp David (2000) summits. From 1993–1997, he served as the Director of the Bureau of Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations in New York City. He was Israel's Ambassador to Panama from 1991–1992.

Ayalon was appointed Israel's Ambassador to the United States in 2002 by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Before his appointment, Ayalon had served as a Deputy Foreign Policy Adviser to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and to Ehud Barak as well as Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Throughout his time in Washington, Ayalon cultivated a strong relationship with President George W. Bush and played a leading role in the Road Map for Peace negotiations between President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon. He also secured the agreement for $9 billion in U. S. grants and loan guarantees to Israel beginning in 2003 which Israel needed in order to raise funds abroad at low interest rates. In early 2012, as Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Ayalon, met with his U. S. counterparts to secure another three year, $3.8 billion extension of loan guarantees.

Upon retiring from the foreign service in 2006, Ayalon became the co chairman of Nefesh B'Nefesh, an organization that encourages Aliyah by Jewish people to Israel from North America and other English speaking areas. Forming alliances with government bodies in Israel and Jewish organizations from around the world, he played a critical role in Israel's decision to fund private Aliyah beginning in September 2007. On 31 December 2008, Ayalon left Nefesh B'Nefesh "to pursue an independent political career opportunity". Danny Ayalon was considered to be a highly valued and professional diplomat by senior government officials around the world including former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.

In August 2008, Ayalon joined Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu as chairman of World Yisrael Beiteinu, and was elected in February 2009 after the party won 15 seats. In April 2009, Ayalon was appointed Deputy Foreign Minister in Binyamin Netanyahu's newly elected government. According to The Jerusalem Post, "Ayalon's role is to serve as Lieberman's de facto foreign minister, explaining and justifying his Lieberman's diplomatic plans to the world in a way that only a respected, seasoned diplomat can".

According to Ayalon, a major focus of Israeli diplomatic work involves branding: "We must brand Israel as a democratic Western society, productive and technologically advanced, one that contributes to the world and helps solve the major challenges facing humankind. Israeli democracy in general, and its political system in particular, are the best tools with which to showcase our brand". However, Ayalon, who admires the American system, in conjunction with Lieberman, calls for political and electoral reform in Israel to create greater accountability and consistency within the government, stating: "In autocratic regimes you have maximum govern ability, because the leadership can make decisions without an opposition, and there are no checks or balances. Here, we are perhaps too far toward the other extreme; we have almost complete representation with little governability". In his opinion, "a homogenous government, like minded ministers speaking with one voice and representing a singular policy framework is required to contribute to clear public diplomacy, the sort of diplomacy that Israel sorely needs now to combat the cohesive narrative and branding effort put forth by the Palestinians".

Ayalon supports expanding Israel's global initiatives through MASHAV, Israel's National Agency for International Development. Following the 2010 earthquake, MASHAV deployed emergency medical services and police forces to Haiti. Israel was also the first country to set up a field hospital in Japan after the 2011 earthquake. Through MASHAV Israel has partnered with the United States in Ethiopia, with Germany in Ethiopia and Ghana, with Italy in Senegal, and with Japan and Denmark in the Middle East. In January 2011, Ayalon and German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel met and signed a joint Declaration of Intent aimed to increase bilateral cooperation in effort to assist developing nations, agreeing to work towards the rehabilitation of the contaminated Lake Victoria in Kenya, the main source of water for several states and one of the sources of the Nile River. In February of the same year Ayalon and Niebel met again to examine aid to the new Republic of South Sudan. Also in February 2011, Ayalon signed a joint declaration of cooperation on water supply and sustainable energy technology management with Polish Minister of the Environment Bernard Blaszczyk. Israel and Poland will cooperate to promote investment, the exchanging of technologies, and the sharing of information.

In a video titled "The Truth About the West Bank" released by the Israeli foreign ministry in June 2011, Ayalon presents a historical narrative meant to help wage the public diplomacy battle about Israel's ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. In the video made in cooperation with StandWithUs, which is very similar to one released earlier by the Yesha council, the organization of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Ayalon asks viewers to stop referring to the West Bank as "occupied territories". "It is time for Israel to return to a 'rights based diplomacy' and talk about the facts, rights, history and international law which are little known but give a dramatically different viewpoint to what is currently accepted," he said after the video's release. After the video was posted online, Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Authority's top negotiator, denounced the video as a "falsified account of history and international law", but refused to participate in a public debate on the issues raised in the video proposed by Ayalon. Two more videos starring Ayalon were released: "The Truth About the Peace Process" in September 2011, and "The Truth About the Refugees" in December 2011. In 2017, Ayalon released a video titled "The true history of the Palestinian people" based on the book A History of the Palestinian People. He also published a video about Jerusalem. The video went viral and is considered to have played an important and successful role in ultimately convincing the Trump administration to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem.

In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ayalon has worked to expand Israel's social media diplomacy by helping the ministry maintain over 100 Facebook pages, including "Israel speaks Arabic", a page written in Arabic. After the initiatives launch, Ayalon explained that "it is vital that Israel's voice is heard in every corner of the world and even more so amongst its immediate neighbors". Ayalon has over 65,000 Facebook followers. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency ranked him as the most influential Israeli Politician on Twitter and one of the 100 most influential Jews in 2010. Ayalon has more than 44,000 Twitter followers. He also has nearly 1,000,000 totally upload views on YouTube. He has been recognized as one of the world's leading politicians to utilize social media by web based policy center Dimpool and by Foreign Policy, surpassing President Barack Obama.

Ayalon has served as a member of the Executive Board at the University Center in Ariel, as Vice Chair of the Israel America Chamber of Commerce, and as a Board Member of the America Israel Friendship League. He is a supporter of Aish HaTorah yeshiva and says he tries to make time each week to learn with Rabbi Ephraim Shore of the yeshiva. In partnership with "Latet," Ayalon asked the workers at the Foreign Ministry as well as Green Israel and Alma Gilro to donate food to make over 100 Purim baskets for Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem. In 2011, together with United with Israel, Ayalon helped launch another Purim basket campaign to give soldiers a special thank you during the holiday. For Passover that same year, Ayalon and workers at the Ministry initiated the project, "Lending a (Diplomatic) Hand to the Community", where they hand picked over 2,000 kg of beetroot that was donated to over 700 needy Israeli families. Ayalon has been a co host on the English speaking Rusty Mike Radio station based in Jerusalem where he expressed his affection for the English speaking community and played some of his favorite music including the Beatles. Since 2014, Ayalon has been serving as a visiting professor of foreign policy studies at Yeshiva University. He is the founder of The Truth About Israel, a nonprofit organization that defends Israel in the social media.

In 2005, Ayalon received the Brandeis Award of the Jewish Community of Baltimore. He was the recipient of Aish Hatorah's Builder of Jerusalem Award in 2008.