1. Daniel "Danny" Ayalon is an Israeli diplomat, columnist and politician.
46 Facts About Danny Ayalon
1. 2.
Danny Ayalon served as Deputy Foreign Minister and as a member of the Knesset.
3.
Danny Ayalon was the Israeli Ambassador to the United States from 2002 until 2006.
4.
Danny Ayalon's mother fought in the War of Independence in Jerusalem, and was wounded in battle, and his father fought in the Golani Brigade.
5.
Danny Ayalon received a BA in economics from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
6.
Danny Ayalon is married to Anne Danny Ayalon, who is from an American Evangelical Christian family.
7.
Danny Ayalon met her while she was on internship in Israel, and she converted to Judaism.
8.
Danny Ayalon was a member of the Israeli delegations to Sharm el-Sheikh, Wye Plantation and Camp David summits.
9.
Danny Ayalon was appointed Israel's Ambassador to the United States in 2002 by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
10.
Danny Ayalon secured the agreement for $9 billion in US grants and loan guarantees to Israel beginning in 2003 which Israel needed in order to raise funds abroad at low interest rates.
11.
In early 2012, as Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, met with his US counterparts to secure another three-year, $3.8 billion extension of loan guarantees.
12.
On 31 December 2008, Danny Ayalon left Nefesh B'Nefesh "to pursue an independent political career opportunity".
13.
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.
14.
Danny Ayalon explained that Israel Beiteinu was a natural fit for him as he entered politics because he saw many problems, especially with Israeli foreign policy.
15.
Danny Ayalon is working to reform the Israeli parliamentary style democracy into a less representative democratic government.
16.
Danny Ayalon was placed seventh on the party's list for the 2009 elections to the Knesset, and was elected in February 2009 after the party won 15 seats.
17.
In December 2012, Danny Ayalon was one of three Yisrael Beiteinu MKs not included on the party's list of candidates for the January 2013 elections.
18.
Danny Ayalon aims to develop and expand Israel's diplomatic ties worldwide and to form new coalitions through economic and political cooperation and greater foreign aid.
19.
At the sixth annual international WATEC-Israel exhibition in November 2011, Danny Ayalon offered the Arab world to share Israel's advanced water technologies.
20.
Danny Ayalon slammed the claims that settlements were the cause of violence, citing the pre-state 1929 Arab killing of Jews in Hebron.
21.
Danny Ayalon has criticized world leaders who accuse Israel of destroying the peace process by building in East Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Gilo.
22.
In 2005, as Israel's representative to the United States, Danny Ayalon supported Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, in which all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were evacuated.
23.
However, as a Member of the Knesset, Danny Ayalon explained that he feels the disengagement was a mistake and, "in hindsight we shouldn't have done it because it was excruciatingly painful".
24.
Danny Ayalon has condemned Palestinian claims which "deny the Jewish people's connection with its homeland", and the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information's false claims that the Jews have no past connections to the Western Wall of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem and to the Tomb of Rachel the Matriarch.
25.
Danny Ayalon has appealed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to end what he called the "morally and politically unacceptable" solution created for the Palestinian refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, accusing it to perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by not finding permanent solutions for refugees.
26.
Danny Ayalon called for redress for the approximately 850,000 Jews from Arab counties who fled their homes after Israel was established.
27.
Danny Ayalon said that while the refugee issue was a "core element" in solving the conflict, both Palestinian and Jewish refugees have to be taken into account.
28.
Danny Ayalon became internationally known in early 2010, after he summoned the Turkish ambassador to Israel, Ahmet Oguz Celikkol, to complain about a Turkish television series, Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu, which showed anti-Semitic motifs, including Mossad agents snatching a Muslim baby to convert to Judaism and shooting old men.
29.
At the meeting, Danny Ayalon did not display the Turkish flag, and pointed out to the waiting media that the Turkish Ambassador sat on a lower sofa.
30.
Danny Ayalon later apologized to Celikkol for any personal slight or insult, but not for the substance of the rebuke.
31.
In December 2009, Danny Ayalon led high-level diplomatic discussions with the Holy See concerning Church properties and taxes, leading to an agreement in early 2012 between Israel and the Vatican in which the latter agreed to waive its demand to receive sovereignty over The Cenacle, the location of the Last Supper, on Jerusalem's Mount Zion.
32.
Danny Ayalon supports expanding Israel's global initiatives through MASHAV, Israel's National Agency for International Development.
33.
Also in February 2011, Danny Ayalon signed a joint declaration of cooperation on water supply and sustainable energy technology management with Polish Minister of the Environment Bernard Blaszczyk.
34.
Two more videos starring Danny Ayalon were released: "The Truth About the Peace Process" in September 2011, and "The Truth About the Refugees" in December 2011.
35.
In 2017, Danny Ayalon released a video titled "The true history of the Palestinian people" based on the book A History of the Palestinian People.
36.
Danny Ayalon has nearly 1,000,000 totally upload views on YouTube.
37.
Danny Ayalon 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.
38.
Danny 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.
39.
Danny Ayalon 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.
40.
In partnership with "Latet," Danny 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.
41.
In 2011, together with United with Israel, Danny Ayalon helped launch another Purim basket campaign to give soldiers a special thank you during the holiday.
42.
Danny 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.
43.
Since 2014, Danny Ayalon has been serving as a visiting professor of foreign policy studies at Yeshiva University.
44.
Danny Ayalon is the founder of The Truth About Israel, a nonprofit organization that defends Israel in the social media.
45.
In 2005, Danny Ayalon received the Brandeis Award of the Jewish Community of Baltimore.
46.
Danny Ayalon was the recipient of Aish Hatorah's Builder of Jerusalem Award in 2008.