Danny Ayalon

Ayalon was born in Tel Aviv in 1955.[1] He graduated from the Economics Department at Tel Aviv University and earned an MBA from Bowling Green University in Ohio.[1]

Ayalon’s early foreign-service assignments included Panama, where his responsibilities encompassed political, economic, media, and cultural relations between Panama and Israel.[1] From 1993 to 1997, he directed the bureau of Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York.[1] He was a member of Israel’s UN delegation and represented the country on the General Assembly’s Committee for Peace Keeping Operations and the UN Development Fund.[1] During the four-year posting,[1] he lived in Cresskill, New Jersey.[6]

Between 1997 and 2001, Ayalon served as deputy foreign-policy adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak.[1] His work included participation in Israeli delegations to the Sharm el-Sheikh summit in 1997, the Wye Plantation summit in 1998, and the Camp David summit in 2000.[1] He subsequently became Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s foreign-policy adviser.[1] Recalling these successive appointments in a 2018 interview, Ayalon described Sharon as a leader who gave advisers room to work and supported them when they made mistakes.[7]

In May 2002, Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres appointed Ayalon ambassador to Washington while he was serving as Sharon’s foreign-policy adviser and as a Foreign Ministry official.[8] His ambassadorial appointment was recorded on July 30, 2002.[9] A contemporary account described the 47-year-old diplomat as the youngest Israeli ambassador to Washington since Yitzhak Rabin, who had begun the assignment at 46.[10] Ayalon remained ambassador until November 2006; Sallai Meridor’s appointment was recorded on November 22 of that year.[1][9]

In October 2002, Ayalon initiated an effort to establish a U.S.–Israel economic council and encouraged American investors and entrepreneurs to invest in Israel.[11] His ambassadorship also involved defense cooperation and the management of sensitive bilateral issues concerning Israeli arms exports.[12] In June 2005, he described a memorandum restricting such exports to sensitive countries as a significant achievement.[12] He said that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz’s signing of the memorandum during a U.S. visit would allow Israel’s participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project to be renewed.[12]

Ayalon’s diplomatic work included negotiations surrounding the Roadmap and the April 14, 2004 exchange of letters between President George W. Bush and Sharon; the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs credits him with a leading role in those negotiations.[13] In a later interview, Ayalon called the ambassadorship his most significant position.[7] He described its influence as comparable to that of a foreign minister and emphasized that the embassy team included representatives from nearly every government ministry.[7]

In a July 2005 opinion article, Ayalon defended Israel’s planned disengagement from Gaza and the northern part of the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria.[14] He argued that withdrawal was intended to reduce friction, restart the peace process, and provide Palestinians with an opportunity to build institutions of self-government.[14] “Gaza is both the opportunity and the test for the Palestinian leadership,” he wrote.[14] He warned that the Palestinian Authority’s failure to disarm terrorist organizations endangered that opportunity and urged its president, Mahmoud Abbas, to confront them.[14]

Ayalon also emphasized the domestic scale and social costs of disengagement.[14] His article described the planned removal of residents from 25 settlements and an operation involving approximately 50,000 security personnel, alongside social workers and psychologists.[14] He wrote that residents would leave their homes, businesses and farms would shut down, and schools, synagogues, and cemeteries would be relocated.[14] He also noted that some residents had lived in their communities for more than three generations.[14]

At the end of his ambassadorship, Bush invited Ayalon to a private farewell meeting in the Oval Office.[15] Ayalon told the president that his contribution to Israel’s security, the Jewish people, and the world merited having his name memorialized in Israel.[15] He suggested that an Israeli institute might become a branch of Bush’s planned institute in Texas.[15] Bush asked him to coordinate further steps with senior aide Karl Rove.[15]

After returning from Washington, Ayalon became co-chairman of Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization promoting aliyah and helping immigrants settle in Israel.[1] He was already serving in that capacity by 2007.[6] He also worked in international consulting with lawyer Dov Weisglass.[16]

In August 2008, following discussions with party chairman Avigdor Lieberman, Ayalon joined Yisrael Beiteinu and initially took responsibility for World Yisrael Beiteinu.[16] He called the party his “natural home,” explaining that he supported its positions on changing the system of government, civil marriage, and territorial exchanges.[16] In a later recollection, he said Lieberman had offered him fifth place on the party’s electoral list.[7] Ayalon was elected to the Knesset in February 2009 and served as deputy foreign minister from 2009 to 2013.[1][2]

Ayalon had significant input into Israel’s hasbara, or public-relations campaign, during his tenure as deputy foreign minister.[2] Addressing American Jewish leaders in January 2013, he said he had decided to move Israeli advocacy away from what he called a “reactive-apologetic” approach.[2] In his 2018 account of his relationship with Lieberman, Ayalon said that the foreign minister had allowed him to manage the ministry while occupied with other matters.[7]

In December 2012, Lieberman removed Ayalon from the party’s list for the next Knesset election.[17] No definitive public explanation for the decision was established in contemporary reporting.[17] Netanyahu nevertheless asked Ayalon to remain deputy foreign minister, and he agreed to continue serving in the ministry.[2] Ayalon later said that he left Yisrael Beiteinu before the 2013 election.[7]

On September 16, 2009, Ayalon met U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, one day after the release of the Goldstone Report on the Gaza conflict.[18] He criticized the report and called for American leadership in responding to it.[18] Rice said that the United States was studying the report and argued that progress in the peace process could help manage its effects.[18] Their discussion also included Ayalon’s concerns about a possible Russian transfer of S-300 systems to Iran.[18]

In a 2009 policy article, Ayalon advocated three parallel tracks in relations with the Palestinians: Palestinian Authority capacity-building and the rule of law, regional economic cooperation, and political dialogue.[13] He argued that institution-building included the U.S.-led training of Palestinian Authority security forces under Lieutenant General Keith Dayton and European Union work to strengthen law enforcement.[13] He described unemployment as falling, tourism as increasing, and West Bank GDP growth as reaching 8 percent.[13] To create thousands of additional Palestinian jobs, he proposed developing an industrial base with support resembling a Marshall Plan.[13]

Ayalon regarded political dialogue as necessary but rejected Salam Fayyad’s proposal for a unilateral declaration of statehood following two years of institution-building as unrealistic.[13] He argued that statehood should emerge from consensus and successful negotiations rather than an artificial timetable.[13] He also maintained that Iranian regional influence and support for Hamas and Hizbullah obstructed diplomacy, and that curbing this influence was an international responsibility rather than Israel’s alone.[13] He advocated renewed negotiations without preconditions and identified territory, sovereignty, demilitarization, Jerusalem, settlements, incitement, and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state as issues for discussion.[13]

In December 2009, Ayalon addressed a business-conference session on Israel’s accession to the OECD.[19] He argued that the accession process had been conducted professionally and was nearing completion, making it difficult for other countries to challenge Israel’s suitability at that stage.[19]

On October 18, 2010, Ayalon and U.S. deputy secretary of state James Steinberg headed delegations to the semiannual U.S.–Israel Strategic Dialogue in Washington.[20] The senior-level forum addressed mutual security and partnership, including regional security, peace between Israel and the Palestinians and other neighbors, and Iran’s nuclear program and support for terrorist groups.[20] The joint statement emphasized international pressure and engagement as means of changing Iran’s strategic calculations and preventing it from acquiring a nuclear-weapons capability.[20]

Ayalon also discussed peace prospects with Senator Ben Cardin during a dinner meeting recounted in the Congressional Record in July 2010.[21] Ayalon said peace had been “on the table in November of 2008” but had been rejected by the Palestinians.[21] When Cardin raised Saeb Erekat’s account that Lieberman had refused to shake his hand, Ayalon denied it and referred to Lieberman’s expressed willingness to give his own house for peace.[21]

At a United Nations Palestinian Donors Conference in September 2011, Ayalon urged a return to negotiations amid efforts to dissuade Palestinian leaders from seeking UN recognition of statehood.[22] He warned that assistance and cooperation could be harmed if Palestinian leaders acted contrary to signed agreements, and argued that Israeli economic assistance and cooperation could stop if the Palestinian Authority pursued its UN initiative.[22]

As deputy foreign minister, Ayalon spearheaded a campaign to place the displacement of Jews from Arab countries on the international agenda.[23] He argued that Jewish and Palestinian refugee issues should both be addressed in peace negotiations.[23] The Foreign Ministry’s campaign used an estimate of approximately 850,000 Jews uprooted from Arab countries after Israel’s founding and valued their lost assets at about $700 million at the time.[23] Its proposals included an international fund to compensate countries that absorbed refugees and embassy efforts to secure parliamentary resolutions recognizing the refugee status of Jews forced from Arab countries.[23]

Ayalon also introduced a Knesset resolution to memorialize Mizrahi communities.[3] The associated commemorative plans included a dedicated day of remembrance and a museum addressing the history of Jews from Arab lands.[3] Campaign advocates sought recognition of displacement and compensation for lost property, placing these demands in the context of Palestinian refugee claims and possible future peace negotiations.[3]

Explaining the campaign’s Jewish historical significance, Ayalon said, “All those Jews wanted to be part of the Jewish rebuilding” of Israel.[3] He added that their experiences of harassment, killings, and loss of dignity had “never been recognized.”[3] His advocacy linked the communities’ contribution to Israel with a demand that their suffering and property losses receive public acknowledgment.[3]

In May 2012, Ayalon called on the International Olympic Committee to include one minute of silence in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics for the eleven Israeli athletes murdered during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.[4] His public appearances also encountered antisemitic hostility: in February 2010, British police were investigating a verbal attack during his Oxford University talk after a student shouted “kill the Jews.”[24]

After government service, Ayalon worked in investment and financial advisory roles.[25] In 2018, he was a co-founder of Silver Road Capital and represented Highland Capital Management in Israel while Highland considered acquiring Internet Gold’s stake in Bezeq.[25] A 2020 professional biography identified him as president of Hod Ayalon Ltd., a consulting firm serving governments and international corporations, and chairman of Silver Road Capital.[26]

His other listed business positions include co-founder and chairman of Silver Road Capital Group, co-chairman of Silver Stone Global Partners, and general partner at Germin8 Ventures, a food and agricultural technology investment fund.[5] His work in food technology included involvement with Future Crops, a vertical-farming company, and MeaTech, which develops lab-grown meat; Ayalon said he was a director at MeaTech.[27]

Ayalon’s educational and institutional roles include service on the boards of Tel Aviv University and the Lantos Human Rights and Justice Foundation.[5] He has also been a visiting professor at Yeshiva University, teaching statecraft and international relations.[5] In a 2018 interview, he said he had established a nongovernmental public-advocacy organization that worked mainly in English through social media.[7]

Ayalon’s work with Nefesh B’Nefesh connected his diplomatic career with efforts to encourage Jewish immigration to Israel.[1] He described the organization’s mission as promoting immigration from various countries, and his involvement continued to feature in accounts of his public work outside government.[28][29] His refugee-recognition campaign similarly emphasized Jewish communities whose experiences he believed had received insufficient international acknowledgment.[3]

In public diplomacy, Ayalon promoted a less reactive approach to presenting Israel’s case, both during his deputy ministerial tenure and through subsequent nongovernmental advocacy conducted mainly in English.[2][7] His teaching of statecraft and international relations, alongside service on university and human-rights foundation boards, extended his public engagement into educational and institutional settings.[5]

In January 2010, Ayalon summoned Turkish ambassador Oğuz Çelikkol to protest a Turkish television series depicting Israeli intelligence agents as baby snatchers.[30] He kept the ambassador waiting in a hallway and seated him below the Israeli hosts while cameras filmed; he also drew television crews’ attention to the absence of a Turkish flag.[30][17] The episode triggered a diplomatic dispute, Turkey demanded an apology, and Ayalon apologized.[30][17] In 2016, he recalled the seating as an unplanned mistake and said a joke about the ambassador sitting lower had been broadcast; he also claimed that the incident subsequently became an exercise in diplomatic schools.[28]

The refugee campaign’s proposed parallel between Jewish and Palestinian displacement drew objections.[23] Former Foreign Ministry director-general Alon Liel argued that Jews fleeing Arab countries had generally been accepted in Israel and questioned describing them as refugees in the same sense as Palestinians in Lebanon without citizenship.[23] He supported the possibility of property-compensation claims but disputed the campaign’s broader comparison.[23]

In 2013, Ayalon testified in the case concerning Lieberman’s support for Zeev Ben-Arie’s appointment as ambassador to Latvia.[31] The prosecution alleged that Lieberman instructed Ayalon to support the appointment; Lieberman denied exerting pressure.[31] The Jerusalem Magistrates Court acquitted Lieberman, finding that Ayalon’s individual account contained difficulties and could not support a conviction, and that the evidence did not establish the charged criminal conflict of interest.[31]