Itzhak Levanon

Itzhak Levanon was born in 1944 in Beirut

Itzhak Levanon was born in Beirut in 1944 to Yosef and Shulamit Kishik-Cohen. His mother spied for Israel in Lebanon and helped smuggle Jews from Syria and Lebanon to Israel. He moved to Israel with his family in 1967.

In Beirut he studied at Alliance Israélite Universelle and at the International College of the American University of Beirut. He later earned a degree in Middle Eastern studies and international relations from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

In 1969 he became adviser on Arab affairs to Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1972, served at the mission to the UN in New York, and took the surname Levanon. He later held posts in Venezuela, Colombia, France, Canada, Geneva and Boston, and headed the ministry's Arab media department.

In November 2009 he became ambassador to Egypt and served during the 2011 revolution there. When the Israeli embassy was attacked, he was in Cairo and was flown out on a special Air Force flight.

He retired from the foreign service at the end of 2011 and lectured at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. In 2022 he published a memoir. He died on 27 December 2023 and was buried in Herzliya.