Daniel "Danny" Ayalon (Hebrew: דניאל "דני" אילון; born (1955-12-17)17 December 1955) is an Israeli diplomat, columnist and politician.

Previously, he worked as senior foreign policy advisor to Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon, Ehud Barak, and Benjamin Netanyahu.

His late mother Lily Ellon immigrated to Mandatory Palestine from Poland in 1937, thereby escaping the Holocaust, in which members of her extended family perished.

Ayalon was raised and educated in Tel Aviv and was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces where he rose to the rank of captain in the Armored Corps.

In early 2012, as Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Ayalon, met with his U.S. counterparts to secure another three-year, $3.8 billion extension of loan guarantees.

[10] Upon retiring from the foreign service in 2006, Ayalon became the co-chairman of Nefesh B'Nefesh, an organization that encourages Aliyah by Jewish people to Israel from North America and other English-speaking areas.

[12] 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.

Ayalon "issued a statement saying he was thankful for the opportunity to serve as deputy foreign minister for four years and pledged to continue to act in the country's interests in any future role.

However, Ayalon, who admires the American system, in conjunction with Lieberman, calls for political and electoral reform in Israel to create greater accountability and consistency within the government, stating: "In autocratic regimes you have maximum govern-ability, because the leadership can make decisions without an opposition, and there are no checks or balances.

[19] 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.

[24] At the sixth annual international WATEC-Israel exhibition in November 2011, Ayalon offered the Arab world to share Israel's advanced water technologies.

"Israel will benefit from a peace agreement, but you will also gain a genuine partner for development and the assured welfare of future generations in the region," Ayalon said at the opening session.

[30] Ayalon called the Gaza flotilla raid of May 2010, in which nine activists were killed and many injured a "provocation", stating: "On the deck we found weapons which were used against the forces.

[37] In December 2009, Ayalon led high-level diplomatic discussions with the Holy See concerning Church properties and taxes,[38] 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.

[42] In January 2011, Ayalon and German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel met and signed a joint Declaration of Intent aimed to increase bilateral cooperation in effort to assist developing nations, agreeing to work towards the rehabilitation of the contaminated Lake Victoria in Kenya, the main source of water for several states and one of the sources of the Nile River.

[33] Also in February 2011, Ayalon signed a joint declaration of cooperation on water supply and sustainable energy technology management with Polish Minister of the Environment Bernard Blaszczyk.

[44] In a video titled "The Truth About the West Bank" released by the Israeli foreign ministry in June 2011, Ayalon presents a historical narrative meant to help wage the public diplomacy battle about Israel's ongoing conflict with the Palestinians.

"It is time for Israel to return to a 'rights-based diplomacy' and talk about the facts, rights, history and international law which are little known but give a dramatically different viewpoint to what is currently accepted," he said after the video's release.

The video went viral and is considered to have played an important and successful role in ultimately convincing the Trump administration to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem.

[59] In partnership with "Latet," 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.

[60] In 2011, together with United with Israel, Ayalon helped launch another Purim basket campaign to give soldiers a special thank you during the holiday.

[61] For Passover that same year, Ayalon and workers at the Ministry initiated the project, "Lending a (Diplomatic) Hand to the Community", where they hand-picked over 2,000 kg of beetroot that was donated to over 700 needy Israeli families.