Danon to continue at UN post, won’t run in Likud primaries

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said on Sunday that he would continue to serve in his role at the international body.

By David Isaac, World Israel News 

Despite rumors last Wednesday to the contrary, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said on Sunday that he would continue to serve in his role at the international body and not return to the Israeli political scene.

“Under the leadership of PM @netanyahu, @IsraelinUN continues to achieve unprecedented accomplishments in the diplomatic arena. During this challenging period, I will continue advancing Israel’s position at the UN, & will not participate in the upcoming Knesset elections,” Danon tweeted Sunday.

Danon took up his position at the U.N. in August 2015. He has enjoyed a strong partnership with outgoing U.S Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley. Together, they worked to counter the prevalent anti-Israel and anti-Semitic attitudes ingrained at that world body.

Danon says their efforts bore fruit. On Dec. 6, writing in Israel Hayom shortly before a vote on a U.S.-sponsored resolution condemning Hamas, Danon said, “Even before the vote we saw signs of achievement — we enlisted the European Union to the process and created a dialogue in the corridors of the U.N. on Hamas and the Iranian regime that operates and funds world terror.”

“In the past, the Arabs won an automatic embrace from the U.N. But in the last years, the relation toward Israel changed and the support we enlisted for this resolution proves it.”

That resolution ultimately failed to pass but Israel still considered it a success. “Today we achieved a plurality. That plurality would have been a majority if the vote had not been hijacked by a political move of procedure,” Israeli  Danon said afterwards.