Regev to replace Eisin at PMO

By HERB KEINON
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin will be leaving her post next month in order to devote more time to her three young children. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev will be replacing her. Eisin, who in her 18 months in the job has earned a reputation for being straightforward, forthcoming and thorough, said that "after trying to juggle all worlds, and understanding the importance of the position and the times we are in, I made a decision that I can't do both, and for personal reasons I have chosen to leave." Eisin, who took over from Ra'anan Gissin and started in the Prime Minister's Office when the war in Lebanon broke out in July 2006, said she would continue to maintain close relations with the PMO and would help out as a spokesperson as needed. "But I can't continue in a position that demands 24/7, 365 days a year," she said. Eisin is on excellent terms with Olmert and the senior staff in his office, and they have over the last few months tried to accommodate her need to be with her children. Her primary responsibilities have been to deal with the foreign language press. "In the end I can't do the job from the house with three little kids, and had to make a choice," Eisin said. "I made the only choice I could live with." Regev is a respected Foreign Ministry veteran who served five years as Israel's spokesman in Washington DC, before being appointed the Foreign Ministry's chief spokesman in November 2004. Both Eisin and Regev will be accompanying Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to the Annapolis conference next week, and Regev will formally move over to the PMO on December 2.