Dan Pattir, the Premier’s spokesman, has resigned his post to take up a one-year research fellowship at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. A formal announcement was issued here tonight.
Pattir served as spokesman to Premier Yitzhak Rabin from the beginning of 1975, having earlier worked under Rabin in the Israel Embassy in Washington. He was retained by Premier Menachem Begin who valued his professional abilities as a journalist even though it was always clear that Pattir was not a Likud supporter.
During the dramatic moments of the peace process, Pattir played a key role in projecting Israel’s positions on the world stage. He was a full-fledged participant at the Camp David summit. More recently, he has been spokesman of the Israel delegation under Interior Minister Yosef Burg to the autonomy talks with the U. S. and Egypt, while at the same time serving as the Premier’s media adviser and spokesman.
At the American Enterprise Institute, the conservative policy analysis center, Pattir will do research into the Israel-Egypt peace process. His wife, Yael, a classical scholar at Tel Aviv University, will also do research at a Washington university.
Eventually Pattir plans to return to media life in Israel as an executive or senior correspondent. His resignation at this moment is plainly timed to free him from being the Premier’s spokesman during the election campaign.
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