In the Right Place

I was 15 then, but that was the start of my dream. Who would have believed that one day, I’d be the only Israeli to interview Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Mohammad Khatami, that I would cover the Iranian president’s nuclear agreement talks, and that I’d be present in Iran to cover the demonstrations there? To this day, I’m quoted in Iran all the time. You could say that Iran and I are “old friends.”

I was interested in the media and international relations from a very early age. It fascinated me. I worked for Air France, and my mother worked at the French consulate. So we were very involved with the whole subject of international relations from when I was very young.

My journalism career began early on, and very coincidentally. I was studying at university with a student who was the head of the night desk at the Maariv newspaper. One night he asked me which newspapers I read, and I said Yedioth Aharonoth. He asked me how he could get me to switch to Maariv. With the arrogance of a 17-year-old, I told him, “Maybe if I write there, I’ll read the paper.”

A few days later, I found myself meeting the editor of the Maariv sports section. And that’s where my journalism career began. By the way, sports news is the most accurate of any field in media. Why? Because you’re reporting an outcome — it’s an exact science, as opposed to all the kinds of blather they sell us in the other sections.