Yitzhak Levanon, a veteran and respected diplomat who was Israel's ambassador to Egypt, passed away last week at the age of 79. Levanon was born in November 1944 in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, the son of Shulamit Kischik-Cohen, who was a spy for Israel in Lebanon and an Aliyah activist who smuggled Jews from Syria and Lebanon to Israel.
Yitzhak Levanon at Ulpan Israel Hayom (2017)
Levanon immigrated to Israel in 1967 with his family and began his career in the Foreign Service in the 80s. He later said that he had read in the newspaper about the opening of a cadet course at the Foreign Ministry and decided to try for acceptance: "I went into the unknown, and so I began a career that lasted 40 years."
"Middle Eastern" at the Embassy
Over the years, Lebanon has held a long and impressive list of positions, including Director of the Department of Arab Media at the Foreign Ministry, Israel's envoy to the UN institutions in Geneva, and other significant positions in Israel's missions to the UN, Venezuela, Canada, France and Colombia.
Defense Minister Ariel Sharon in Lebanon with Yitzhak Rabin, Raful, Moshe Levy and others (archive), photo: IDF Archive at the Ministry of Defense
Later in his diplomatic career, Levanon was Consul General in Boston. In late 2009, Levanon was appointed Israel's ambassador to Egypt and served in this position during the Egyptian revolution. During the attack on the Israeli embassy in Egypt, he was in Cairo and was rescued on an Israeli Air Force flight.
After an extensive and long career, Levanon retired from the Foreign Ministry in 2011. He then lectured at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and wrote articles on the Middle East. Levanon wrote his memoir, In the Eye of the Storm: Diplomatic Secrets.
"He was just a star"
Alon Liel, former Director General of the Foreign Ministry, said of Lebanon: "We worked together for more than 30 years in the Foreign Service. He grew up in the shadow of a huge mother. He had a special connection to the country where he was born, so I also think he changed his surname to Lebanon, which came at the gates of the Foreign Ministry. We served together at the embassy in Paris in the early 80s. He was our 'Middle Eastern' at the embassy, an advisor on the Middle East, and he was just a star. Since then, his name began to spread far and wide in the ministry, until he became the Foreign Ministry's expert on Lebanon and the Middle East."
Yitzhak Levanon in 2009, photo: Yehoshua Yosef
"Later he went to other positions, until he was appointed ambassador to Egypt. He was an 'investigative ambassador,' one who personally went through all the local Egyptian media, revealing trends. Every visit I made to him in Cairo was an experience in the sense that he would give significant in-depth reviews. He was besieged at the embassy on that defining day, one of the crossroads in the history of diplomacy, when a mob stormed the embassy. He was an investigative diplomat with depth and knowledge. A unique person in the Foreign Ministry."
Orientalist Dr. Meir Masri eulogized him on his Facebook account: "A man dear to my heart has passed away - a former ambassador and one of the best publicists Israel has known in recent years. The late Yitzhak Levanon was a friend and older brother to me and my friends in the field. He was one of the few people in Israel who mixed Hebrew, Arabic and French in the same conversation."
"He appreciated ties and fountain pens, knew many poems by heart and loved to tell Egyptian jokes. But above all, Yitzhak was Ansan, a human being, a kind Jew, a simple and humble diplomat, who represented us with honor and served the country with loyalty and dedication. May his memory be blessed."
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