Ehud Yaari

Ehud Ya'ari (born 1 March 1945) (Hebrew: אֵהוּד יָעָרִי‎) is an Israeli journalist, author, television personality and political commentator.

Biography

Ehud Ya'ari was born in 1945 during the Mandate era. He holds a BA in Middle Eastern Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from Tel Aviv University.

In 1968, he was an assistant to Shlomo Gazit, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. From 1969 to 1975, he was the Arab affairs correspondent for the newspaper Davar and Israel Army Radio. From 1975 to 2000, he was a commentator on Middle Eastern affairs on Channel 1. In 1987, he became a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and in 1990, he became a columnist for The Jerusalem Post. He became a commentator on Arab affairs on Channel 2 (Israel)|Channel 2]] in 2000. In 2008, he joined the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies of the Shalem Center.

Yaari has reported from Egypt and Lebanon, and in 1997, reported from Washington. He interviewed many Arab statesmen and leaders, and also conducted an interview with US President Bill Clinton.

He was married to Hava Ya'ari, and they had two sons, Tzahi and Yehuda. In 1985 Hava and friend Aviva Granot embezzled funds from an American tourist and Holocaust survivor and later murdered her by striking her over the head with a rolling pin and running her over with a car. Divorced by Ehud after being convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in a sensational trial, her sentence was later reduced and she was released from prison in 2000.

Yehuda Yaari is a journalist and lecturer at Ariel University. Tzahi Yaari gained attention in the Israeli media for his conversion to Christianity. In 2005, he was investigated for harassing Israeli news anchor Miki Haimovich. The case was dropped after he was deemed unfit to stand trial. Ehud later married Dagmar Strauss, who now goes by the name of Dagmar Strauss Yaari.

Media career

Ehud Ya'ari is an expert on Middle Eastern affairs. He is the author of eight books on the Arab-Israeli conflict, some in collaboration with Ze'ev Schiff. He has interviewed Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan and his son Abdullah, President Husni Mubarak of Egypt, almost all Israeli prime ministers since Menachem Begin (including Yitzhak Rabin), Bashar al-Assad, Bachir Gemayel, Muammar al-Gaddafi and others. Today, Ya'ari is a political commentator for Israel's Channel 2 news. Yaari is an associate editor of The Jerusalem Report and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He is also Senior Fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies. Ya'ari has published articles in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Atlantic Monthly.

Awards

• Israeli Press Editors-in-Chief prize for coverage of the peace process with Egypt
• Sokolov Prize for coverage of the Lebanon War
• Israel Broadcasting Award for coverage of the Gulf War

Published works

• "Fatah" (Sabra Books, 1971)
• "Egypt's Policy Towards Israel in the Fifties" (1974)
• "A Guide to Egypt" (1982)
• "The Year of the Dove", co-authored with Ze'ev Schiff (Bantam, 1979)
• "Israel's Lebanon War" (Simon and Schuster, 1984)
• "Intifada", co-authored with Ze'ev Schiff (Simon and Schuster, 1990)
• "Toward Israeli-Palestinian Disengagement" and “Peace by Piece: A Decade of Egyptian Policy”.

External links

• Nasrallah’s Malaise - Jerusalem Report, October 2, 2006
• After the Palestinian Elections - JCPA
• Fight Delay- inside the Hamas Strategy - The New Republic
• Ehud Yaari on Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies
• Hamas Transformed January 2009