Israel’s ambassador to the UN digs in against growing US scorn

In the face of growing hard-line opposition to Israel’s government in the United States, the country’s top envoy to the United Nations dismissed criticism against his country, instead blaming opportunistic politicians and skewed polling.

“Those lawmakers, I think they are looking for headlines. And unfortunately, today it’s very easy to get headlines when you attack Israel, and that’s why they continue to do that,” said Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., in a Saturday interview.

He spoke with The Hill ahead of the United Nations annual high-level assembly beginning Tuesday. Israeli officials and politicians typically avoid working on Saturday, the holy day of Shabbat in Judaism, but Danon is deep in preparation mode for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrival in New York.

Intense protests are expected against Netanyahu’s appearance, one representation of Israel’s plunging reputation among Americans. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) has advocated for arresting the Israeli leader on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court — although he conceded city authorities don’t have the authority to do so.

American attitudes toward Israel have been slipping since about 2019, according to Gallup .

About half of Americans expressed support for Israel in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack in which it infiltrated southern Israel, killed about 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage. As the Palestinian death toll rose over the course of Israel’s three-year war against Hamas, with a devastating impact on life in Gaza, American attitudes collapsed.

Today, a majority of Americans hold a negative view of the Israeli government — 62 percent according to a recent Pew survey . And 42 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of the Israeli people, compared to 25 percent four years ago.

Danon, when presented with those statistics, dismissed their accuracy.

“I beg to differ. It always depends on how you ask the questions,” he said.

Earlier, he said he believes the majority of the American people “appreciate the bond and the alliance between the people” of Israel.

“We share the same values, we fight the same enemies,” he said. “We proved it when the U.S. fought against Iran. We stood with the U.S., unlike some of the European countries who played games and barred flights from U.S. aircrafts over European territories. So we will continue to stand with the U.S.”

Trump’s decision to wage war on Iran is deeply unpopular, too, particularly with gas and diesel prices spiking. Netanyahu’s role in convincing Trump to enter the war has only fueled criticism of the U.S.-Israel relationship on both sides of the aisle.

While views of the Israeli people and Israeli government have turned more negative across the political spectrum, the trend is most stark among Democrats, both among voters and their elected lawmakers.

Earlier this year, more than 100 Democrats voted in favor of a failed resolution to cut off U.S. military aid to Israel. And historically pro-Israel Democrats are growing increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu’s government and what they say is his failure to address their concerns of violence.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) have blocked the sale of 40,000 one-ton bombs to Israel, worth $2.8 billion. The top two Democrats on their respective foreign affairs panel have raised concerns over Netanyahu’s government’s military conduct in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank.

Shaheen also led a privileged resolution, introduced on Sept. 15, that would compel the State Department to provide information on increasing violence in the West Bank, including the killings of Americans, and Israel’s adherence to international humanitarian law.

Danon said he would not respond to criticisms from specific lawmakers when asked about addressing Meeks and Shaheen’s concerns. He accused critics of Israel of seeking relevancy and said there’s more violence coming from Palestinians against Israelis in the West Bank — referred to by the Israeli government as Judea and Samaria.

“We are taking action against criminals in Judea and Samaria, but you have to look at the facts. The fact is that it’s more dangerous to be a Jewish family living in Judea and Samaria than a Palestinian family,” he said.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs keeps a running list of foiled and successful attacks in what it calls a “wave of terror” against Israelis.

The United Nations has warned of a sharp increase in violence carried out by Israeli settlers following the Oct. 7 attacks. The Israeli watchdog group B’tselem states that between Oct. 7, 2023, and Aug. 31, 2026, Israel has killed more than 1,100 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 245 children.

And a report published Friday by the former head of the Shin Bet’s research division highlighted that “violence by extremist settlers have risen sharply in scale and severity.”

Shifting from retaliatory attacks, it says the violence has become “a more proactive, strategic effort aimed at displacing Palestinian communities and seizing territory.” The report was written by Neomi Neumann, now an adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Neumann noted a drop in Palestinian attacks, from 414 in 2023 to 68 in 2025, citing Shin Bet data. Twenty-one attacks were recorded in the first half of 2026. Israeli fatalities also dropped, from 46 deaths in 2025 to 25 in 2025, and only three as of July 2026.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), self-described pro-Israel Democrat, implored the Israeli government to take steps to improve its image around the world, responding to a CNN segment Friday showing U.S. support for Israel at negative 16 points, when averaging polls. That represented a 67-point shift over the course of eight years, from 2018 to 2026.

“We listen to our allies and our colleagues, and we are aware of the situation,” Danon said when asked about Sherman’s remarks in a post on the social platform.

“We are not happy with the situation, but we realized we had no choice. It was either being popular — on October 8 we were very popular. We were the victims. Everyone felt bad for what happened to us,” he continued.

“So, if we had to choose between the situation where we are today, that we won the war — it was painful, costly, we lost a lot of lives. It was painful for our economy, and also what you mentioned regarding public opinion, and to the situation where we were on October 8, I prefer to be where we are.”

But Netanyahu’s relationship with President Trump is also badly frayed. The U.S. president let loose frustration earlier this summer, when he felt Israel was compromising talks with Iran. The two have no plans to meet at the United Nations.

Danon and U.S. officials point to scheduling conflicts as preventing a meeting. Trump is leaving New York on Tuesday evening, while Netanyahu is arriving Wednesday and speaking Thursday. Danon said the period of the High Holidays in the Jewish calendar, and campaigning for Israel’s Oct. 27 elections, necessitate the shortened visit.

“It’s very hard to coordinate, I can tell you, I’m in the details,” Danon said.

“He will come in and out, but I think it is an important statement that we are a member state of the UN and the prime minister will present the challenges we face, but also the opportunities.”

Still, Netanyahu is on the outside of some important meetings Trump is holding on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Trump is holding his first face-to-face with new United Kingdom Prime Minister Andy Burnham. It comes after the U.K., Canada and France announced sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank — responding to increasing acts of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians.

Trump and his top officials responded to the sanctions with a general silence . U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has described violent Israeli settlers as terrorists.

Danon dismissed the imposition of sanctions as those countries looking to distract from addressing their own issues and criticized the actions as performative.

“They think they can divert from their own problems by attacking Israel,” he said.