Freddy Eytan
Encyclopedia
Freddy Eytan, is an Israel
i diplomat
, former Ambassador
, writer
and journalist
.
, Italy
, from the early 19th century. His father, Ouzy, was an active Zionist. In November 1942, at the beginning of the invasion of Tunisia by the German army, Ouzy was arrested by the Gestapo. After four months he escaped from a camp localized in the military port of Bizerte. After Liberation, he contributed to Mossad Aliyah Bet, which brought Jews to Israel.
In 1956 he established, with friends, a Moshav near Megiddo called Nir Yaffe. Ouzy was the Moshav Secretary for many years and an activist in North Region for Rafi Movement (a political party affiliated with Ben Gurion). This is the Moshav where Freddy Eytan lived during his childhood.
, the attack by Israel that destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in Baghdad. Between 1981 and 1989 he served as chief editor of Kol Israel Foreign News desk. He then started to work as a press officer for the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry in Brusells and Jerusalem. Eytan created the APEJ in Brussels which was the first bulletin Jewish press in Europe and in French. JTA was its world agency, based in NY and in English, but APEJ took their news by arrangement. Eytan also created and developed also the first Jewish radio in Europe in 1981.
Two noteworthy interviews that Eytan did were with Prime Minister Menachem Begin
(before he was Prime Minister) and Moshe Dayan
. In Eytan's interview with Begin, in L'aurore Begin pronounced that the U.S. administration would not favor the creation of a Palestinian state. This was during the Carter administration. Eytan interviewed Moshe Dayan the week before he died for the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. The Israeli paper, Kol Hayir, called the interview a historical document. It was the last interview Dayan did before his death. The interview was designed to discuss Dayan's reaction to the assassination of Anwar Sadat, but the two also spoke about the army, politics, life and death and Dayan's own personal reflections on his life. This exclusive interview was published in Yediot Aharonot.
Between 1972 and 1976, Eytan was a diplomat in the Israeli Embassy in Paris. In 1989 Eytan became the press officer at the Israeli Embassy in Brussels and continued until 1992. In 1998 he became the first Israeli Ambassador to Mauritania
with a mandate to represent Israel in all North Africa. He initially was Israel's representative in the country and when diplomatic ties were finalized became its first ambassador to Mauritania. During his time in Mauritania, Eytan was instrumental in many projects aimed at strengthening diplomatic measures between the two countries. Furthermore, he strived to bring Israeli humanitarian missions to aid the people of Mauritania. One such project brought Israeli eye doctors to the country to provide care for people who otherwise would have no access to such care. Due to the lack of access to surgery, many people suffer from blindness that is caused by untreated cataracts. Israeli doctors were brought in to perform surgery on these people and prevent many conditions. According to the doctors who participated in the missions, Eytan was the "moving spirit" behind the project. After Eytan ended his term in Mauritania, Israel struggled to find a successor. However, the two countries maintained their diplomatic connections despite objections from other Arab countries.
and runs its French website, the CAPE . The CAPE features political commentary and analyses on Israeli foreign affairs, the Middle East, and French foreign policy concerning Israel and the Middle East. It uses historical facts in order to present Israel's case to the French speaking world. According to Eytan, it is important to utilize Jewish and Israeli values to explain the root of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the historical background. The information provided on the site provides a background for understanding the Israeli side and the existential problems with which it is dealing.
, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Benjamin Netanyahu. In addition, he has written numerous political analyses on the Middle East and has spoken at a vast number of forums and conferences. He has focused on the subject of defensible borders for Israel in order to create a lasting peace. His articles and interviews have been featured in The Jerusalem Post, Diplomatie, Israel Magazine, L'Express, Tribune Juive, the Toronto Star, the Gazette, LeTemps, and the National Post. Among the television stations that have interviewed him include TF1, BFM, TV5, France 3 and France 24.
"Europe's colonial history is the source of its frequent obsessions with trying to solve Middle Eastern problems. That history is also behind Europe's double standards and double play. I believe that one of the Americans' great advantages in the negotiations is that their history is not budrened with the major anti-Semitism that has manifested itself for such a long time in Europe."
- Robert Yves Quiriconi, Associated Press (on Sharon: A Life in Times of Turmoil).
- Journal du Dimanche on David et Marianne
- Pierre Salinger, ABC News on David and Marianne
-Web Radio du Livre on Sharon, le bras de fer
-Présent quotidien de Paris
-Pierre Lurcat, France Israel Information 346, November 2009 (on Sarkozy, Le monde juif et Israël).
Eytan's books have been praised in Le Canard enchaine, Le journal du Dimanche, L'Express, the Jerusalem Post, L'Arche, Le Monde, L'Est Republican, Tribune Juive, Information Juive, Haaretz, the Canadian Jews News, the Jewish Press, Yediot Ahronot,
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
, former Ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
.
Family
Freddy Eytan's family originated in LivornoLivorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, from the early 19th century. His father, Ouzy, was an active Zionist. In November 1942, at the beginning of the invasion of Tunisia by the German army, Ouzy was arrested by the Gestapo. After four months he escaped from a camp localized in the military port of Bizerte. After Liberation, he contributed to Mossad Aliyah Bet, which brought Jews to Israel.
In 1956 he established, with friends, a Moshav near Megiddo called Nir Yaffe. Ouzy was the Moshav Secretary for many years and an activist in North Region for Rafi Movement (a political party affiliated with Ben Gurion). This is the Moshav where Freddy Eytan lived during his childhood.
Army
Eytan served from 1965 to 1972 in the Israeli army. After three years in the Northern Headquarters Command he became a press officer and operated under Chief of Staff Major General David Elazar. Eytan participated in battles during the Six Day War in the Golan Heights and Northern West Bank. In 1982, he became a military correspondent and covered the first Lebanon war when the Israeli army invaded Beirut.Journalist
Eytan began his career as a Galei Tshahal correspondent. He worked as the Israeli Radio and Television correspondent in Paris between 1976 and 1981. In August 1980, Freddy Eytan wrote an article in the Jerusalem Post entitled "Delayed Reaction," in which he argued that it has taken Israel five years to understand the dangerous situation that the French nuclear agreement with Iraq causes. Eytan describes the nuclear reactor that Iraq was developing. Israel, according to Eytan, must act to show France the dangers of their policy. This article was written a year before Operation OperaOperation Opera
Operation Babylon was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on June 7, 1981, that destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Iraq....
, the attack by Israel that destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in Baghdad. Between 1981 and 1989 he served as chief editor of Kol Israel Foreign News desk. He then started to work as a press officer for the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry in Brusells and Jerusalem. Eytan created the APEJ in Brussels which was the first bulletin Jewish press in Europe and in French. JTA was its world agency, based in NY and in English, but APEJ took their news by arrangement. Eytan also created and developed also the first Jewish radio in Europe in 1981.
Two noteworthy interviews that Eytan did were with Prime Minister Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
(before he was Prime Minister) and Moshe Dayan
Moshe Dayan
Moshe Dayan was an Israeli military leader and politician. The fourth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces , he became a fighting symbol to the world of the new State of Israel...
. In Eytan's interview with Begin, in L'aurore Begin pronounced that the U.S. administration would not favor the creation of a Palestinian state. This was during the Carter administration. Eytan interviewed Moshe Dayan the week before he died for the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. The Israeli paper, Kol Hayir, called the interview a historical document. It was the last interview Dayan did before his death. The interview was designed to discuss Dayan's reaction to the assassination of Anwar Sadat, but the two also spoke about the army, politics, life and death and Dayan's own personal reflections on his life. This exclusive interview was published in Yediot Aharonot.
Diplomat
Eytan was professor at Bar-Ilan and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He also has been a distinguish career diplomat at the embassies in Brussels and Paris and also senior advisor to the foreign minister and spokesman for the Israeli side during peace negotiation with the Palestinians in 1996-1998.Between 1972 and 1976, Eytan was a diplomat in the Israeli Embassy in Paris. In 1989 Eytan became the press officer at the Israeli Embassy in Brussels and continued until 1992. In 1998 he became the first Israeli Ambassador to Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
with a mandate to represent Israel in all North Africa. He initially was Israel's representative in the country and when diplomatic ties were finalized became its first ambassador to Mauritania. During his time in Mauritania, Eytan was instrumental in many projects aimed at strengthening diplomatic measures between the two countries. Furthermore, he strived to bring Israeli humanitarian missions to aid the people of Mauritania. One such project brought Israeli eye doctors to the country to provide care for people who otherwise would have no access to such care. Due to the lack of access to surgery, many people suffer from blindness that is caused by untreated cataracts. Israeli doctors were brought in to perform surgery on these people and prevent many conditions. According to the doctors who participated in the missions, Eytan was the "moving spirit" behind the project. After Eytan ended his term in Mauritania, Israel struggled to find a successor. However, the two countries maintained their diplomatic connections despite objections from other Arab countries.
Advocate
Since 2005, he is in charge of European Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public AffairsJerusalem Center for Public Affairs
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a public policy think tank devoted to research and analysis of critical issues facing the Middle East. The center is located in Jerusalem, Israel...
and runs its French website, the CAPE . The CAPE features political commentary and analyses on Israeli foreign affairs, the Middle East, and French foreign policy concerning Israel and the Middle East. It uses historical facts in order to present Israel's case to the French speaking world. According to Eytan, it is important to utilize Jewish and Israeli values to explain the root of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the historical background. The information provided on the site provides a background for understanding the Israeli side and the existential problems with which it is dealing.
Author
Eytan has written many books, mostly in French, about the Israel-Arab conflict, French-Israeli relations, biographies of Ariel Sharon, Shimon PeresShimon Peres
GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...
, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Benjamin Netanyahu. In addition, he has written numerous political analyses on the Middle East and has spoken at a vast number of forums and conferences. He has focused on the subject of defensible borders for Israel in order to create a lasting peace. His articles and interviews have been featured in The Jerusalem Post, Diplomatie, Israel Magazine, L'Express, Tribune Juive, the Toronto Star, the Gazette, LeTemps, and the National Post. Among the television stations that have interviewed him include TF1, BFM, TV5, France 3 and France 24.
Analysis of French-Israeli Relations
Eytan's analysis of French-Israeli relations and French involvement in the Middle East are based on a historical perspective. He argues that in order to understand the current situation of French policies in relation to this region, one must look back several decades to the Dreyfuss Affair, end of colonialism, Vichy France and their relations with Iran. In his article "French History and Current Attitudes," he concludes:"Europe's colonial history is the source of its frequent obsessions with trying to solve Middle Eastern problems. That history is also behind Europe's double standards and double play. I believe that one of the Americans' great advantages in the negotiations is that their history is not budrened with the major anti-Semitism that has manifested itself for such a long time in Europe."
Books
- Bibi, le réveil du faucon- Editions Alphée - 24 février 2011. ISBN- 978-2-7538-0669-6.
- Sarkozy, Le monde juif et Israël - Editions Alphée Jean-Paul Bertrand- September 2009 - Paris.
- La Shoah- Editions Alphée Jean-Paul Bertrand-Paris-2010. ISBN- 978-2-7538-0569-9
- Les mass medias en Israël- Paris- 1972.
- La presse française pendant la guerre de Kippour- Paris- 1974.
- David et Marianne- Alain Moreau- Paris- 1986 -ISBN 2-85209-021-X.
- Le conflit Israélo-arabe de Balfour 1989- Jerusalem - Akademon
- La Poudrière- Cid- Bruxelles- 1990. ISBN D/1990/5786/1
- Shimon Pérès au carrefour du destin -Editions du Rocher- Paris- 1986- ISBN 2-268-022862.
- Keren Or - Yedioth Aharonot- Tel- Aviv- 2004- ISBN 965-511-590-9.
- La France Israël et les Arabes -Le double jeu?- Jean Picollec- Paris- 2005 - ISBN 2-86477-211-6.
- Les secrets d’un diplomate- avec Avi Pazner - Editions du Rocher- Paris- 2005 - ISBN 2-268-05352-0.
- Sharon, le bras de fer- Jean Picollec-Paris- 2006- ISBN 2-86477-221-3.
- L’autre visage d’Israël- Editions du Rocher- Paris- 2006-ISBN 2-268-05835-2.
- Sharon, a life in times of Turmoil- Studio 9- New York- 2006- ISBN 1-55207-091-3. (Originally in French, translated into English and Portuguese)
- Les 18 qui ont fait Israël - Alphée- Paris- 2007- ISBN 978-2-7538-0265-0.
- V.G, Taupe-secret à Jérusalem- Alphée- Paris- 2008- ISBN 978-2-7538-0286-5.
- Sharon O Braço de Ferro - Barcarolla - São Paulo - 2008- ISBN 978-85-98233-30-7
- Israel: Des frontières défendables pour la paix et la sécurité. Written with Dore Gold, Yaacov Amidror and Meir Rosenne. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs - Jerusalem. ISBN 965-218-059-9
Reviews
- "...a remarkable piece of investigative journalism. Excellent portrait of Sharon. Well document and simply buzzing with revealing facts and pertinent details."
- Robert Yves Quiriconi, Associated Press (on Sharon: A Life in Times of Turmoil).
- "Explosive book."
- Journal du Dimanche on David et Marianne
- "... is wonderfully done and full of resource material... A Job well done."
- Pierre Salinger, ABC News on David and Marianne
- - A favorite book of the Radio France stations."
-Web Radio du Livre on Sharon, le bras de fer
- "Feddy Eytan asks the real questions, the book renews the passion from the beginning to the end."
-Présent quotidien de Paris
- "It clearly analyzes the subject based on much research and gives a complete picture of Israeli-French relations."
-Pierre Lurcat, France Israel Information 346, November 2009 (on Sarkozy, Le monde juif et Israël).
Eytan's books have been praised in Le Canard enchaine, Le journal du Dimanche, L'Express, the Jerusalem Post, L'Arche, Le Monde, L'Est Republican, Tribune Juive, Information Juive, Haaretz, the Canadian Jews News, the Jewish Press, Yediot Ahronot,
External links
- French JCPA site
- JCPA main site
- Interview on Canal Academie
- Eytan, Freddy. Europe and the War in Lebanon. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. 16 August, 2006.
- Interview with Freddy Eytan (Audio) on BFM : Interviews Du 12-15
- France-Israël 1948-2008: des relations pas comme les autres 1967-1981: le désamour. Akadem.
- IFP : Institut Français de Presse
- Centre d'Accueil de la Presse Etrangère CAPE
- Israel 7: Mais qui est donc Netanyahou… ? « Bibi le réveil du faucon », tel est le titre de ce nouvel ouvrage de Freddy Eytan, paru aux éditions Alphée