Ephraim Dowek, presently the deputy head of Israel’s U.N. mission, has been named the new Israeli ambassador to Egypt.
Dowek’s appointment, along with several other ambassadorships, was announced Monday after a meeting of the Foreign Ministry’s appointments committee, the first under the new minister, David Levy.
The expected appointment of Likud Knesset member Zalman Shuval as ambassador to Washington was not announced at the meeting, but Shuval said this was a technical delay and indicated he would be named shortly.
Shuval is said to be divesting himself of his business affairs before taking up the appointment, which was agreed upon during the coalition negotiations.
Other envoys named Monday include Benad Avita to Singapore; Yitzhak Shelef to Canada; Meir Joffe to Bulgaria; and Yoel Sher to Czechoslovakia. All four are senior ministry men. All the appointments need two formal endorsements: one by the Israel Cabinet and the other by the prospective host government.
Dowek has already served a successful, lengthy term in Cairo as No. 2 to the first Israeli ambassador there, Eliahu Ben-Elissar. Dowek is fluent in Arabic.
Joffe currently serves as ambassador to Ethiopia.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
