Danny Danon may be appointed as ambassador to the UN

(A7) Gilad Erdan will end his position as Israel’s ambassador to the UN this summer and will return to Israel in August. His replacement, it appears, will be Knesset member Danny Danon from the Likud party.

Senior officials familiar with the matter say that Danon, who has already served as an ambassador to the UN, is perceived in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s environment as a potential rebel. Netanyahu’s people want to thwart the possibility of him joining the Yoav Gallant-Yuli Edelstein-Eli Dallal bloc. They fear the three will act to change the composition of the government in the current Knesset.

On Friday, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan had informed them of his conclusion of service this coming summer.

Erdan has served four years in the position, and for a year he also served as Israel’s ambassador to the USA. Erdan was offered to return and serve as ambassador to the USA, but he chose to return to Israel for family reasons, as two of Erdan’s four children will serve in the IDF in the coming year.

Netanyahu thanked Erdan for his work and for standing up to the challenges at the UN. “Ambassador Erdan represented Israel with honor, determination, and firmness, and I thank him for that,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.