In first, Israel names woman as ambassador to Egypt

Oron, a veteran diplomat, previously served as Israel's charges d'affaires in Ankara.

By HERB KEINON
Updated: OCTOBER 31, 2018 02:53
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in New York (photo credit: AVI OHAYON - GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in New York
(photo credit: AVI OHAYON - GPO)
The Foreign Ministry’s Appointments Committee named Amira Oron as Israel’s next ambassador to Egypt, which will make her Jerusalem’s first female ambassador to Cairo since diplomatic ties were established in 1980.
Oron, a veteran diplomat, previously served as Israel’s chargé d’affaires in Ankara. Turkey expelled Israel’s ambassador in 2010 following the Mavi Marmara incident, and Oron became the highest ranking Israeli diplomat in the country from 2015 until a new ambassador was appointed in 2016 – who also shown the door following yet another crisis in relations between the two countries – .
Other positions she held at the ministry include deputy spokesman and head of the ministry’s Arab Media Department. Oron will replace David Govrin, who has held the Cairo post since 2016.
Among the other appointments announced on Tuesday was Emmanuel Nahshon, the ministry’s spokesman, who will be going to Brussels.
Prior to taking over as spokesman in 2014, Nahshon held posts in Germany, and before that in Turkey.
Amira Oron/Foreign Ministry
Amira Oron/Foreign Ministry
Oron was one of four women among nine new ambassadorial appointments announced on Tuesday.
The others include Rodica Radian- Gordon, named new envoy to Madrid, Spain; Orly Gil, Riga, Latvia; and Marina Rosenberg, Santiago, Chile.
Radian-Gordon is currently the ministry’s deputy director-general for Western Europe. A Romanian native, she has served in the past as Israel’s ambassador in Bucharest, as well as in Mexico City.
Gil has served previously in Nepal and as Israel’s consul general in Chicago, and Rosenberg has served previously as a political counselor in Berlin.
The other appointments are Yoram Elron, the deputy director-general for Africa, who was named ambassador to Sofia, Bulgaria; Boaz Moda’i, Israel’s former ambassador to Dublin, Ireland, who will be going to Bratislava, Slovakia; Alex Ben-Zvi, deputy director- general for Eurasia, who will serve in Warsaw, Poland; and Ran Gidor, currently Israel’s ambassador in Cameroon, who will be moving to Tbilisi, Georgia.
The appointments now must go to the cabinet for final approval. The new ambassadors are expected to take up their positions next summer