David Landau immigrated to Israel from the UK as a young man and rose to attain perhaps the most sought-after position in the country’s media: editor-in-chief of Haaretz, the prestigious and influential Israeli newspaper with world-wide resonance. Under Landau, Haaretz grew to its largest-ever circulation. Consistently ‘doveish’, the paper nevertheless firmly backed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in his battle against the Palestinian intifada – and then in his dramatic decision to withdraw Israeli troops and settlers unilaterally from Gaza and the northern West Bank. Haaretz’s position was crucial in shoring up public support for this historic, and still controversial,policy-turnaround.

An Orthodox Jew himself, Landau was able to broaden and deepen the ‘Jewish’ content of Haaretz, a proud bastion of Zionist secularism. The paper and its websites, in Hebrew and English, are a key forum for debate on Israeli, Jewish and Mideastern issues.

After stepping down recently from the editorship "he remains a member of the Haaretz editorial board", Landau is focusing on his new book: a comprehensive biography of Ariel Sharon, commissioned by the New York publishing house, Alfred A. Knopf. He has also resumed writing for The Economist, the London based news-magazine with which he has had a long association. Landau lectures widely, and appears frequently on the BBC and on U.S. and Canadian networks as a commentator on Israeli politics and society. His long career in journalism – he was diplomatic correspondent of The Jerusalem Post from 1972 to 1986 and then managing-editor – give him authoritative insight into Israel’s past and present. Landau collaborated with Israel’s President, Shimon Peres, on Peres’ memoirs, Battling for Peace "New York, Random House, 1995". He retains a close personal relationship with the president.

In his acclaimed book, Piety and Power (New York, Hill & Wang, 1993), Landau provided an informed and intimate look into ultra-Orthodox or ‘haredi’ society in Israel, the U.S. and Europe. David Landau is something of a rare bird: on the left politically; on the right religiously – and this makes for unfailingly lively, original and thought-provoking presentations and discussions whenever he speaks in public.

Landau graduated in law from University College, London and studied in leading yeshivas in Israel. His wife, Jackie, is a rehabilitation teacher for visually impaired children. They have three children and five grandchildren.

Business, Political Pundits & Commentators, Authors, Economy Finance, Political,