Danny Rubinstein was born in Jerusalem. He received his B.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1961, majoring in Middle Eastern studies and sociology. From 1967 he was a journalist for the Davar newspaper and since 1990 has been a member of the editorial board of Haaretz and a regular columnist. He also teaches a course on the Israel-Palestine conflict at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Among his writings are The People of Nowhere (1991), The Mystery of Arafat (1995) and Camp David 2000 (2002).