Akiva Eldar (Hebrew: עקיבא אלדר; born 27 November 1945) is an Israeli political analyst, author and journalist.
In the past, Eldar wrote for the newspaper Haaretz and was chief political columnist, editorial writer and US Bureau Chief for the paper,[1][2] where he worked for 35 years. His final column in English for the paper appeared on 13 November 2012.[3] He also wrote columns for the Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun, lectured in communications at Tel Aviv University's School of Journalism and worked as a consultant for PBS television.[4][5]
He served as spokesperson for the former mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek.[4] He was a reporter and editor at the Kol Yisrael. Eldar began working for Haaretz in 1978. In 1983–1993, he was the diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz. In 1993–1996, he served as HaaretzUnited States Bureau Chief and Washington, D.C., correspondent, covering the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, Israel–United States relations, American issues and Israel–diaspora relations. He was a special consultant to Abba Eban's PBS television documentaries on the history of Israel and the Oslo Accords.From 2012 to 2020 he was the political analyst for Al-Monitor.com. Since then he is a permanent contributor to Haaretz and frequently interviewed by global TV news shows.
Eldar was described by Nahum Barnea as one of several journalists, along with Gideon Levy and Amira Hass, who do not "pass the lynch test" and "who could not bring themselves to criticize the Arabs even when two Israelis were savagely murdered by a mob in Ramallah". Barnea called their support for the Palestinian position "absolute".[6]
Eldar responded that he was honored to be mentioned along with his fine journalist colleagues Levy and Hass, and wrote, "I admit to being guilty as charged. I am a journalist with a mission, and also no small amount of passion. Every Israeli with a conscience, in particular one who watches reality from up close on a daily basis, cannot write about the occupation from an objective observer's neutral point of view."[6] In a response op-ed, Calev Ben-David wrote that if Eldar is not empathetic to Israelis' concerns, he will do little "to advance the Palestinian cause, as he merely preaches to the converted and makes his own conscience feel cleaner in the process".[7]
In October 2007, Eldar won the annual Eliav-Sartawi award for Middle Eastern journalism, awarded by Search for Common Ground, an international conflict transformation organization, sharing it with Jordanian journalist Salameh Nematt.[8]
