London: When Mark Regev saw Israel for the first time on a visit with his father, the Melbourne-born 16-year-old immediately felt at home.
“We saw the country from top to bottom and I felt very inspired and a sense of belonging and a desire that this is something I need to be involved in.”
Now, 42 years later, Regev struts the world stage as Israel’s ambassador to Britain, and one of the strongest international voices in favour of its sometimes contentious policies. What fuels him is a profound sense of mission about his adopted home.
“Australia’s a wonderful country. You’ve got this nice life in Australia. And yet the Jewish state is facing very serious challenges,” he tells Fairfax Media from his office at the well-guarded Israeli embassy in the plush London suburb of Kensington.
“Is it right that you stay here and enjoy Australia, and people are fighting and dying?
“It’s like a play going on and you can either be in the audience and watch … or you can be a participant. And I decided I wanted to be a participant.”
On a sideboard in Regev’s London office sits a photograph of his father and uncle among a group of 30 Jewish pupils. It was taken in either 1938 or 1939. Just four of the children would survive the Nazi regime.
“It’s important to understand where I came from,” says Regev, holding the picture.
Read the article by Latika Bourke in The Sydney Morning Herald.