Orly Azoulay

Orly Azoulay
Orly Azoulay in Riyadh during the Arab summit in 2007.
Born	1953 (1953) (age 63) Rishon Lezion, Israel
Occupation	Israeli-American Journalist and Political Writer who works for Yedioth Ahronoth

Orly Azoulay (Hebrew: אורלי אזולאי‎‎) (Born: 1953) is an Israeli-American Journalist and Political Writer who works for Yedioth Ahronoth.

Biography

Azoulay was born in Rishon Lezion in Israel. She began her career in journalism during her service at the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as a reporter during the Yom Kippur war. After her service at the IDF she joined Yedioth Ahronoth and was correspondent in Hasharon and Netanya. During this time, she wrote many articles about crime in Netanya.

Azoulay was one of the only journalists prosecuted for judicial offenses. In 1978, she published a favorable article about a convicted criminal two days before the verdict. Azoulay was convicted under article 41 of the law and was imposed a fine. In 1981 the district court dismissed the appeal.

In 1993, she moved to Paris as a correspondent for Yedioth Ahronoth. In this position, she covered peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

In 1996, Azoulay went to Israel to cover the elections and then she went to Washington as a correspondent for a US newspaper. She covered peace conferences including Wye agreement, the Camp David conference and Shepherdstown. She has reported on the topics of Axis of Evil from Iran, Iraq and North Korea. She was the first Israeli Journalist commissioned to King's Palace in Riyadh and reported from summit of Arab league. Saudi government at first declined to grant her a visa,^[1] on the grounds that Saudi Arabia hat no relations with Israel, but reversed the decision after direct orders from the Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal following a phone call from Ban Ki Moon.^[2][3] She has reported from areas of tension around the world including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, Qatar and on Hezbollah in Beirut.

2015 Trip to Iran

In March 2015 Orly Azoulay visited Iran. This was the first documented trip of an Israeli Journalist to Iran although Azoulay reports that she has visited Iran several times previously.^[4] She visited Iranian Jewish communities and synagogues in Tehran and Isfahan. She further visited the tomb of Queen Esther in Hamedan. In her article about the trip, Azoulay reported that she travelled to Iran with an American passport. However Iranian authorities realized that she had Israeli citizenship because she was born in Israel. Subsequently she was only fingerprinted and was allowed to enter the country and travel freely within the duration of her visit. She spent two weeks and Iran and posted several photos of the trip.^[5][6]

Books

• "The man who knew forever", A biography of Shimon Peres
• "The man who won his own", The political battle between Netanyahu and Ehud Barak
• "Obama - He has a dream", On US Presidential elections in 2008.

Personal life

Azoulay was married to Yaakov Katz, the son of the Israeli radio personality Joel Katz and they have one daughter together. She subsequently married Howard Arenstein the head of CBS radio in Washington. Azoulay has Israeli, American and French passports.

Controversies

In 2010 Howard Arenstein and his wife Orly Azoulay were arrested for growing Marijuana inside their home. Washington police received a complaint that the couple grow Marijuana in their backyard and obtained a search warrant. During the raid the police found large cannabis plants standing more than 8 feet high.^[7][8][9]

In 2013 her stepson Louis Arenstein was charged with vandalism. The public complained about various vandalism on cars even with images such as swastikas and the suspect came out to be Louis Arenstein.^[10]

See also

• Larry Cohler-Esses
• Annika Hernroth-Rothstein

References

• Hebrew Wikipedia, אורלי_אזולאי, Accessed on May 3, 2015.