YOSSI MELMAN – A BIOGRAPHY
Yossi Melman is one of Israel’s leading journalists and commentators. He is the recipient of the 2009 Sokolov Aawrd – Israel’s most prestigious and highest decoration for journalists. He is a feature writer and columnist for the Israeli daily Haaretz, a panelist with the Washington Post (http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/globalpost/) and the author of several world- acclaimed books, on foreign policy, strategic issues, terrorism and intelligence.
He has also been a frequent lecturer on these topics on behalf of the New-York based Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nation, The American Jewish Joint distribution committee and before many Jewish and non-Jewish groups as well as civic forums and economic organizations in North America and Europe.
In 1997 he was accepted to the prestigious International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) which is sponsored and managed by the Washington based Center for Public Integrity. He is the only Israeli member of the ICIJ.
BOOKS
His most recent book recently published is THE NUCLEAR SPHINX OF TEHERAN: MAHMOUD HAMADINEJAD AND THE STATE OF IRAN (Carroll&Graf).
“THE GOOD SON”, a play staged at the Tel Aviv Cameri Theater, 1n 2006-2007.
In winter 2002, he wrote (in Hebrew), SPIES: ISRAEL’S COUNTER ESPIONAGE WARS (coauthor Eitan Haber, Yediot Aharonot), which has been for 50 weeks no.1 on all Israel’s best-selling lists. It has sold 60,000 copies.
Melman’s EVERY SPY A PRINCE: THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF ISRAEL’S INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY (Houghton& Mifflin, 1991), coauthored with CBS News reporter Dan Raviv, was s New York Times Bestseller for 14 weeks, as well as a bestseller in Israel, Germany and Poland. The book was translated and published in 30 countries.
Another book, FRIENDS IN DEED: INSIDE THE AMERICAN- ISRAELI ALLIANCE (Hyperion, 1994) was described by Mike Wallace, the award-winning 60 Minutes’ investigative reporter as “a fascinating insider’s, with hitherto unrevealed insights”. Earlier he published four other books on terrorism, secret diplomacy and Israel.
BACKGROUND
Yossi Melman was born in Poland, in 1957 and emigrated to Israel in 1957. After 3 years of national service in “Shaked”, one of Israel’s Defense Forces’ elite units.
He studied history and international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1972-1975).
In 1990 he graduated from Harvard’s prestigious journalism program, as a Nieman Fellow.
In 1993-4 he participated in the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) sponsored Michigan Journalism Fellows.
He is a founding member (1997) of the Washington based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
From 1974, Yossi Melman has been an active journalist and commentator for Galey Tzahal (IDF radio station 74-75 and 80-84), Kol Israel (The Voice of Israel radio station 1974-1980), Haaretz (London correspondent 1980-1984 and since 1988), Davar daily (political correspondent 1984-1988).
AWARDS
Yossi Melman is the recipient of the 1994 “Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism” and of the 1995 Boris Smolar Award of Excellence in International News or Feature Reporting”, on behalf of the American Jewish Press Association.
In 2003 together with a few other members of the International consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) investigative team he received a special award for their coverage of “Making a Killing: The Business of War”, a project of 11 features on world wide arms dealers and oil and diamond merchants in Third World countries.
In 2004 survey among Haaretz readers Yossi Melman was selected as the “Most Outstanding and Interesting Writer”.
In 2007 participated together with ICIJ reporters (Michael Bilton, Prangtip Daorueng, Ignacio Gomez, Andreas Harsono, Alain Lallemand, Mutegi Njau, Paul Radu, Gerardo Reyes and Leo Sisti) in an investigation project Collateral Damage: Human Rights and Military Aid After 9/11. The project was a finalist in the Online News Association Awards. You can see the press release here: http://journalist.org/awards/archives/000773.php Two of his stories (On the Israeli attack on the Syrian nuclear facility and on Iranian nuclear program) were selected among the top ten most read stories in 2007 in Haaretz website (www.haaretz.com) ranking no 2 and no.4.
CONTRIBUTOR
He has contributed to the LA Times, Washington Post, NY Times, Chicago Tribune, Moment Magazine, Boston Globe, (London) Sunday Times, The Guardian and other international dailies. His television appearances include Israel’s channels One, Two and Ten, to CBS’ 60 Minutes, Today Show, CNN, BBC and many other radio and TV shows in countries in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America.
He speaks and writes fluent Hebrew and English and speaks Polish. He is an enthusiastic runner and triathlate and completed since 1993 in 17 marathons, four ironmans and 10 half ironmans.
Yossi Melman lives in Tel Aviv with his wife, Billie Melman, Professor of Modern History at Tel Aviv University and their 25 -year-old son and 16-year-old daughter.