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Yigal Carmon

Yigal Carmon is an Israeli orientalist and former intelligence colonel who co-founded and heads the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

born 1946Founding MEMRICounterterrorism adviser to prime ministersActing head of Civil Administration

Occupation: orientalist, translator
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Rank: aluf mishne
Founded: Middle East Media Research Institute (1998)

Yigal Carmon was born in 1946 in Bucharest

Yigal Carmon was born in 1946 in Bucharest, Romania. He immigrated to Israel with his family as a child and grew up in Hadera. He began studying Arabic in high school.

Through the Atuda program, he studied Orientalism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He joined the IDF in 1968 and served in military intelligence until 1988, reaching the rank of colonel.

From 1977 to 1981 he advised on Arab affairs in the West Bank and Gaza. He then became deputy to Menahem Milson, head of the Civil Administration, and helped promote the Village Leagues. After Milson resigned in 1982, Carmon served as acting head.

In 1988 he became counterterrorism adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and later served Yitzhak Rabin. He was part of the Israeli delegation to talks with Syria in Washington. He resigned in 1993 over his opposition to the Oslo Accords.

In 1998 he founded MEMRI, which translates Arabic and Persian media into other languages. He has testified before the US Congress and European parliaments.