Mark Regev
Mark Regev is an Australian-Israeli diplomat, government advisor and civil servant. Between June 2020 and April 2021, he served as the Prime Minister's Senior Advisor for Foreign Affairs and International Communications. From 2016 to 2020 Regev was Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom. Previously, he was the International Spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office.
Early life
Regev was born Mark Freiberg in Melbourne, where he was raised, in Victoria, Australia, in 1960 to Martin and Freda Freiberg, two German Jews. He was educated at Mount Scopus Memorial College, a Jewish day school in Melbourne. He received his bachelor's degree in political science and history at the University of Melbourne, and master's degrees in political science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and in management from Boston University.In his youth, Freiberg was a prominent member of the Socialist Zionist youth movement Ichud Habonim and was active in the Melbourne University Jewish Students Society. In 1982, he emigrated to Israel and worked at kibbutz Tel Katzir. In Israel, he Hebraicized his surname from Freiberg to Regev. He served as a combat soldier in the Nahal Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces.
Career
Regev began his career as a lecturer on international relations and strategy at the Israel Defense Forces Staff College. He joined Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1990, serving as deputy chief of mission at the Consulate General in Hong Kong, and spokesman at the Israeli Embassy in Beijing. In 2015 Regev was appointed to replace Daniel Taub as Israel's ambassador to the UK; he officially assumed his position on 4 April 2016.As ambassador, Regev was involved in interfaith activities. He hosted an iftar dinner at his residence for members of Britain's Muslim leadership. He served as ambassador for four years before returning to Israel in August 2020 to become prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Senior Advisor for Foreign Affairs and International Communications, replacing Evan Cohen. Regev was succeeded by Tzipi Hotovely.
In 2022 Regev was appointed to be the chair of the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy and Foreign Relations at Reichman University.
Regev has received both prominence and criticism in international media when he has presented the Israeli position in interviews to English language TV and radio channels during the 2006 Lebanon War, the 2008–09 Gaza War, the 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense, the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict and Operation Brother's Keeper, and the 2021 Operation Guardian of the Walls. In 2020, he described the two-state solution as an "illusion" that could never be implemented successfully.
During the Gaza war, Regev made several controversial remarks about the conflict, including denying Israeli responsibility for the flour massacre and suggesting collective punishment as a means of forcing the release of Israeli hostages. In one interview on MSNBC, host Mehdi Hasan accused Regev and other Israeli government figures of spreading disinformation about civilian casualties in Gaza. Regev appeared on British radio station LBC on 13 January 2024 to call genocide allegations against Israel "preposterous." In the same interview, he described South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice as "very sad, because they basically decided to become Hamas' lawyer."
Regev is married to Vered Regev. They have three children.