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 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 give him authoritative insight into Israel’s past and present. In his lectures, Landau speaks knowledgeably, insightfully and provocatively on the challenges and predicaments facing Israel and the Jewish People.
Peace in a Time of Terror: Israel’s Battle to Survive and Thrive
Too Much of a Good Thing? Israel’s Dysfunctional Democracy
Judaism in the Jewish State: Problems Still Unsolved
Who Would Have Thought? The March of Haredism
Israel-bashing and Media-bashing: Two Growth Industries
Editor-in-Chief of Haaretz, Influential Israeli Newspaper
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. He currently writes for The Economist, the London-based news-magazine with which he has had a long association.
Author
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. Landau collaborated with Israel’s President, Shimon Peres, on Peres’ memoirs, Battling for Peace. He retains a close personal relationship with the president. In his acclaimed book, Piety and Power, Landau provided an informed and intimate look into ultra-Orthodox or ‘haredi’ society in Israel, the U.S. and Europe.
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