Mark Regev

Regev was born Mark Freiberg in Melbourne in 1960 to Martin and Freda Freiberg and attended Mount Scopus Memorial College.[1] He participated in the Socialist Zionist youth movement Ichud Habonim and the Melbourne University Jewish Students Society.[1] After moving to Israel in the early 1980s, he worked at Kibbutz Tel Katzir and Hebraicized his surname from Freiberg to Regev.[1]

He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and modern history at the University of Melbourne, a master’s degree in political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a graduate degree in management at Boston University.[1][3] His early professional experience included lecturing on international relations and strategy at the Israel Defense Forces Staff College.[1] A 2007 Jerusalem Post article also described army service and high-school teaching after his move to Israel.[6]

Regev joined Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1990 and served in diplomatic assignments in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Washington.[1][3] His earlier posts included deputy consul in Hong Kong, first secretary in Beijing, and adviser in Washington.[3] An October 2002 Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs article identified him as the Israeli embassy spokesman in Washington and included him among officials addressing English-language international media.[7]

From 2004 to 2007, Regev was the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman in Jerusalem.[1][3] In 2007 he moved to the Prime Minister’s Office under Ehud Olmert, beginning a period as an adviser and international-media spokesman that continued until his appointment as ambassador to the United Kingdom in 2016.[3][4] His international television and radio appearances included presenting Israel’s position during the 2006 Second Lebanon War and the Gaza campaigns of 2008, 2012, and 2014.[1] He also represented Israel in interviews during Operation Brother’s Keeper in 2014.[1]

During the reconstruction debate following the 2008–2009 Gaza conflict, Regev distinguished between rebuilding Gaza and rebuilding Hamas.[5] International reconstruction efforts faced disagreement over how to proceed without Hamas, while Israel expressed concerns about the entry of materials such as cement and steel.[5] In that context, Regev stated that Israel wanted Gaza reconstructed but did not want Hamas reconstructed.[5]

In September 2010, as spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Regev addressed the implications of a deadly terrorist shooting in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — ahead of planned direct peace talks.[8] He said the attack would not change the summit and would underscore security concerns Israel intended to raise in the negotiations.[8] During the rocket barrages affecting southern Israel in July 2014, he emphasized their impact on children, saying: “There is a whole generation of kids there who have known nothing except sirens and bomb shelters.”[9]

Regev went to London in 2016 to succeed Daniel Taub as Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.[10][3] His activities there included economic diplomacy: at a London technology-conference event in September 2017, he pointed to 28 Israel-based companies listed on the London Stock Exchange as evidence of strong bilateral economic ties.[11] He also said annual trade between the countries had exceeded £5 billion for the first time in the previous year.[11]

His ambassadorial public engagements included events concerning Jewish history and international diplomacy.[12][13] The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs listed him as delivering the opening remarks at a September 5, 2017, London event about Jerusalem’s history, held at Sixty One Whitehall, the venue of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.[12] Its annual report also placed him among participants defending the Balfour Declaration at a House of Commons conference marking its centenary, alongside Dore Gold, Alan Baker, Andrew Roberts, Yair Hirshfeld, and former British justice minister Michael Gove.[13]

After four years as ambassador, Regev returned to the Prime Minister’s Office in August 2020 as a senior adviser to Netanyahu with responsibility for international communications.[10][4] In July 2021, he was leaving that office to return to the Foreign Ministry, having remained to assist the transition to Naftali Bennett’s government.[4] Later in 2021, he was announced as a senior visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies.[3]

Regev also published arguments about Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy.[14] In a November 25, 2021, opinion article linked to the anniversary of the UN Partition Plan, he argued that demonizing Israel, supporting maximalist demands, and opposing concessions did not help Palestinians.[14] He used the anniversary to advance his interpretation of the plan’s significance and of Palestinian rejectionism.[14]

After October 7, 2023, Regev returned to the National Public Diplomacy Directorate in the Prime Minister’s Office.[15] A November 2023 profile identified him as a senior adviser for foreign affairs and international communications and described him as part of a team working shifts on international television.[16] Fellow spokesman Eylon Levy said Regev was giving interviews “at all hours of the night.”[16] Regev left the government’s public-diplomacy operation at the end of January 2024 and returned to work at the Abba Eban Institute at Reichman University in February.[17]

On October 31, 2024, Regev participated in a conference on the Israel–Jordan peace treaty organized by the Institute for National Security Studies and Israel’s Foreign Ministry.[18] Listed as chair of the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy & International Relations, he joined the panel “Pressure Chamber: Jordan - Internal Tensions and External Pressures.”[18] He also co-hosts JNS TV’s Undiplomatic with Ruthie Blum.[2] On January 8, 2026, he delivered a keynote address at a Tel Aviv gathering for Australian Jewish students visiting Israel and community members.[19]

Regev’s public profile developed through repeated appearances in international media explaining and defending Israeli government policy during conflict.[1][4] His work connected embassy diplomacy, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson role, and the Prime Minister’s Office’s international communications operation.[3]

His television appearances influenced Eylon Levy, who recalled watching Regev while growing up in London and wanting to do the same work.[16] Regev’s subsequent activities at the Abba Eban Institute, in broadcasting, and at diplomatic conferences extended his public role beyond his service as ambassador and government spokesman.[2][18]

In an April 2024 online conversation with American Friends of Likud, Regev asserted that most Israelis opposed a hostage-release deal “at any price” and argued that public opinion supported continuing the campaign against Hamas.[17] The Hostages and Missing Families Forum challenged his characterization, citing a figure of 84 percent for Israelis who agreed that the war could not be won without bringing the hostages home.[17] The reported statements used different question wordings and were not established as answers to the same survey question, so the figures do not constitute a direct comparison.[17]