Inside the lion’s den: Israel is quietly regaining respect at the UN, Danny Danon tells 'Post'

When Danny Danon returned to New York two years ago for his second stint as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, he described the organization as a far more ferocious lion’s den than the one he had left four years earlier.

Danon borrowed the image from the title of his 2022 memoir, In the Lion’s Den, itself a nod to his biblical namesake, Daniel. But the UN he reentered after October 7 bore little resemblance even to the inhospitable institution in which he served from 2015 to 2020 – a period that, from the vantage point of the Gaza war, looked almost like a diplomatic golden age.

The atmosphere Danon returned to in 2024 was extraordinarily hostile. Israel’s enemies were highly motivated, its allies exhausted, and ambassadors who had once met him regularly reluctant to be seen with him publicly.

Two years later, the lions have not exactly become lambs. Yet Danon, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post ahead of this month’s UN General Assembly gathering, sounded a surprising note: Things are getting better.

“When I came back after October 7, I was shocked by the level of hostility and the hatred – the isolation,” he said. “I think now the situation is improving.”

Improving is, of course, a relative term at the UN when it comes to Israel. The automatic majorities have not disappeared, nor have traditional friends necessarily returned to their former positions. Canada and Australia, whose diplomats he worked closely with during his first term, remain, in his understated words, “problematic.” Britain – as it proved this week with its boycott of settlement products and accusations of “ethnic cleansing” – has moved in the wrong direction.

A change behind closed doors

Still, Danon sees a change – less in public votes and statements than behind closed doors. Following Israel’s operations against Hezbollah and Iran, he said, diplomats – including from Muslim countries – quietly admired Israel’s capabilities even while remaining publicly hostile.

That gap between private praise and public condemnation is hardly new. The obvious question is what value private admiration has if those same countries continue voting against Israel when the lights are on and the cameras are rolling.

Danon’s answer is that it produces concrete results away from the UN floor: intelligence cooperation, trade, and growing interest in Israeli defense technology. Some deals are public; others remain discreet.

The pager operation in Lebanon and Israel’s ability to maneuver over Iran and rapidly establish air superiority were closely studied by military attachés in New York, he said. They may not praise Israel publicly, but they took notice, and he said this helped Israel regain both respect and deterrence.

“We paid a heavy price, and we are still paying,” Danon said, referring to the international criticism, demonstrations, and wave of antisemitism generated by the war. “But I think we also have to be grateful for the fact that we regained the respect of many nations.”

Respect is not affection, and it does not automatically translate into votes. But it, along with deterrence, is a critical asset.

Danon’s task is to convert private respect into bilateral cooperation and eventually multilateral support. “It’s not really sufficient for us yet on the multilateral track,” he acknowledged. “But I think it can come.”

One place where he says it is already coming is Latin America.

That, too, represents a striking reversal. When Danon returned to the UN in 2024, he cited Venezuela and Colombia, along with Brazil, as examples of the hostility then emanating from the region. Today, he describes Latin America as a diplomatic bright spot.

Last week, he said, he held a productive meeting with Venezuela’s ambassador. Caracas, he added, has gone from being “one of the hostile forces against us in the UN” to “an ally of Israel.”

Colombia’s shift could be even more consequential because it holds a seat on the Security Council. Danon said Israel is awaiting the arrival of the new Colombian ambassador and expects the change from the previous, deeply hostile government to be felt quickly.

The lesson is that UN alignments change rapidly when governments change. Danon cited Slovenia and Colombia as countries that moved toward Israel after elections, while Britain moved in the opposite direction. Ambassadors may conduct diplomacy at the UN, but their instructions come from home.

Relations with the Abraham Accords countries have proved more durable. Danon said wartime cooperation with the UAE and Bahrain reached levels unimaginable before the accords, and at the UN, he also maintains good relations with Morocco.

Danon, however, holds out little hope for Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords anytime soon, saying that Hamas’s October 7 attack sabotaged that move.

“I think eventually it will happen, but it will take more time,” he said.

Israel’s view of UNIFIL

If the diplomatic map has shifted since Danon’s return, so has Israel’s view of UNIFIL.

In 2024, despite the UN force’s glaring failure to keep southern Lebanon free of Hezbollah personnel, weapons and infrastructure, Danon said in an interview with the Post that Israel did not necessarily want it withdrawn. Rather, Jerusalem wanted its mandate strengthened and fulfilled.

Today, his position is completely different: UNIFIL must go, and Israel will oppose efforts to replace it with another international force operating under a different name.

Danon expects France, other countries, and UN officials to press for an extension or successor mechanism. Lebanon has already requested an extension, he said, and the coming weeks will bring considerable pressure.

“They don’t care about stability or about the interests of the Lebanese people,” he said of those seeking to preserve the international presence. “They just want to be present and to remain in the region.”

Israel prefers direct coordination with the Lebanese Armed Forces, similar to its arrangements with Egypt, Jordan and, Danon said, even Syria. Temporary extensions are no solution, he warned, because at the UN, temporary arrangements tend to become permanent.

Another change Danon is eagerly awaiting is the departure of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, whose term expires at the end of the year.

Asked if Israel has a preferred candidate, Danon said, “Anyone would be better than Guterres. The way he is conducting the UN today is shameful.”

The bitterness is sharpened by the warmth of their earlier relationship. During Danon’s first term, he brought Guterres to Israel and hosted him for Shabbat dinner. After Guterres was reelected, Danon said he “exposed his true face,” appointed hostile figures to key positions, and yielded to the organization’s anti-Israel pressures.

For Danon, the central failure was Guterres’s refusal to visit Israel after October 7. Guterres said he was waiting for a formal invitation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an explanation Danon dismisses as ridiculous.

In October 2024, after Guterres failed to unequivocally condemn an Iranian missile attack on Israel, then-foreign minister Israel Katz declared him persona non grata.

Danon said this was only a “declaration,” and that the government did not pass a resolution on this, so that had the secretary-general wanted to come to Israel, he would not have been barred. Danon said Guterres inexplicably never expressed interest in coming to Israel after October 7 or going to the ravaged border communities and meeting the hostage families.

Israel is not endorsing a candidate to replace Guterres, but is examining the contenders’ records and looking for someone strong enough to reform the UN and stop the organization’s “obsession with Israel.”

Yet Danon rejects responding to UN hostility by abandoning the arena. Two years ago, he argued that just as Israel patrols its physical borders, it must defend its “diplomatic borders.” If Israel is absent, its adversaries can spread accusations more easily and its friends will be left to fight alone.

He makes the same argument today. “If we are not in the room and our allies are not in the room, it is much easier to isolate us,” he said. “We have to be there. We have to be vocal, we have to build coalitions, and we have to demand changes in this organization.”

That effort will be on display when Netanyahu arrives immediately after Yom Kippur for an unusually brief visit to the UN General Assembly. He is expected to stay only one night, leaving little time for bilateral meetings and apparently no opportunity to meet US President Donald Trump, who speaks two days earlier.

Netanyahu is coming primarily to deliver his speech, a platform he prizes and prepares for meticulously. Coming just a month before the elections, the targeted audience this year will be more the Israeli voter than the gathered diplomats.

Outside the hall, Danon expects more demonstrations than usual thanks to the encouragement of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Mamdani, who threatened to arrest Netanyahu and said he would if he could, but does not have the authority to do so, has not expressed a similar wish regarding Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is also expected to attend. Nor has he called for protests against the Iranian leader whose government gunned down tens of thousands of its own civilians.

While Danon has spent recent weeks preparing for Netanyahu’s visit, his Likud colleagues back home have been competing in primaries that many expected him to contest.

Why did he not run?

Danon said October 7 convinced him that his experience could be put to greater use at the UN than in the Knesset. He does not regret the decision, but neither does he sound like a man who has renounced politics.

“Politics is not going to disappear, and I will come back,” he said.

Danon challenged Netanyahu for the Likud leadership in 2007 and again in 2014. Asked whether he might compete for the leadership in the post-Netanyahu era, he replied: “It’s not a secret that I have aspirations.”

For now, he presents his ambassadorship as both a national mission and valuable preparation – an opportunity to handle strategic questions, build relationships and meet world leaders.

“I’m gaining a great deal of experience in this position,” he said.

What he intends to do with the experience afterward is a question he is not yet ready to answer fully, but one whose answer is not difficult to imagine.