Itamar Rabinovich

Itamar Rabinovich was born in 1942 in Jerusalem

Rabinovich was born in Jerusalem in 1942. His father, Gutman Rabinovich, was an Irgun member who later ran the Maariv newspaper for many years, and his uncle was General Aharon Yariv. He grew up in Ramat Gan, was a member of the Scouts and attended Ohel Shem high school.

He served in the IDF Intelligence Directorate and left with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He earned a BA in Middle Eastern studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MA at Tel Aviv University. In 1971 he completed a PhD on Syria at the University of California, Los Angeles.

He joined the Tel Aviv University faculty in 1971. He headed the Middle Eastern history department and the Moshe Dayan Center, and served as dean of humanities and rector. From 1999 to 2007 he was the university's president.

In 1992 he was named head of Israel's negotiating team with Syria, and he was chief negotiator between 1993 and 1996. In the 1990s he also served as ambassador to the United States.

He has written books on Syria, Lebanon and the Arab-Israeli conflict, and a 2017 biography of Yitzhak Rabin. In 2012 he founded the Israel Institute, which he heads. He is professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and a fellow at the Brookings Institution.