Freddy Eytan

Freddy Eytan was born in 1947 in Tunis

Freddy Eytan was born in Tunis on 20 January 1947. His family came from Livorno, Italy, and his father Ouzy was a Zionist activist who helped bring Jews to Israel. In 1956 his father helped found the moshav Nir Yaffe near Megiddo, where Freddy grew up.

Eytan served in the Israeli army from 1965 to 1972, including in the Northern Command and later as a press officer. He earned a humanities degree at Tel Aviv University and studied communications at the University of Paris.

He began in journalism at Galei Tsahal and was a diplomat at the Israeli embassy in Paris from 1972 to 1976. From 1976 to 1981 he was the Kol Israel correspondent in Paris, and in 1981 he interviewed Moshe Dayan shortly before Dayan's death. He then headed the Kol Israel foreign news desk.

In 1989 he became press officer at the Israeli embassy in Brussels. In 1996 he became a senior adviser and spokesman to the foreign minister and spoke for Israel in peace talks with the Palestinians. In 1998 he opened Israel's embassy in Nouakchott and became the first Israeli ambassador to Mauritania.

Since 2006 he has been a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, where he runs its Europe project. He has published 20 books, including biographies of Shimon Peres and Ariel Sharon. He is married to Nira and has 3 sons.