Draft:Yacov Livne

Yacov Livne (born March 27, 1967) is a diplomat in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs who serves as Ambassador of Israel to Poland. He has previously been the director of the Eurasia Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for relations with Russia, Ukraine and other countries, and served in the Embassies of Israel in Moscow and Berlin.

Early life and education
Livne was born in Moscow in the Soviet Union in 1967. In 1974, he immigrated to Israel with his family. Studied in Haifa in a mathematical-scientific major high school. He served in the Israel Defense Forces as a soldier in the 13th Battalion of the Golani Brigade and as a commander and chief instructor. In 1992, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics at the Technion in Haifa. In the same year he was accepted to the cadet course of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Livne holds a master's degree in international relations from the Hebrew University and a doctorate from Ariel University. He wrote his thesis on the impact of immigrants on core issues in foreign policy. His doctoral thesis dealt with Israel's relations with the Soviet Union in the first and formative decade since the establishment of the State of Israel.

Career
In 1994, he took up his first diplomatic post as spokesman for the Embassy of Israel in Moscow, which he held until 1997. This was the period of the re-establishment of relations with Russia, including the first historic visits to Moscow by the Prime Ministers of Israel - Yitzhak Rabin in 1994 and Benjamin Netanyahu in 1997.

Upon his return to Israel, he headed the Central Asian and Caucasus countries section in the Eastern Europe division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 1999, Livne began his diplomatic career. His first appointment was a political advisor position at the Embassy of Israel, Berlin. Four years later, in 2003, he started his mandate of the deputy of the international department and head of the United States desk at the Center for Political Research.

In 2009, Livne began serving as the director of the Eurasia department, back at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was responsible for relations with Russia and other countries in the post-Soviet space. During his term, free trade agreements were promoted: the first agreement was signed with Ukraine and entered into force in January 2021. Additionally, the agreements to bring in foreign workers from Ukraine and Moldova in the fields of construction and nursing were also signed during his mandate.

In the years 2019-2020, he served as the Chargé d’affaires of the Israeli Embassy in Moscow.

In September 2020 Livne was appointed Israel's ambassador to Poland. Livne arrived in Poland in February 2022, after the end of the diplomatic crisis and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In the first two years of his term, he was involved in strengthening bilateral cooperation in the area of agriculture and restoration of the educational program of the Israeli youth delegations coming to Poland

Since 2004, Livne has served on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' trade union.

In 2014, Livne was one of the founders of the Israel Diplomacy Association. He is also active in the Israeli Union of Diplomats

Personal life
Livne knows Hebrew, English, Russian and German languages.

Livne is married and has two children.