MARGALIT, DAN

MARGALIT, DAN (1938– ), Israeli journalist. Margalit graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and entered journalism in 1960 working at Ha-Olam ha-Zeh, a satirical political news magazine put out by Uri *Avneri, and then at La-Ishah, the women's magazine. In 1964 he joined Haaretz covering political and parliamentary affairs, first as a Knesset reporter covering parliamentary committees and later as a political columnist. In 1977, as the paper's Washington correspondent, he disclosed that Leah Rabin had an illegal foreign bank account, the disclosure of which resulted in the fall of the Rabin government and elections which brought the Likud to power for the first time. Well connected to the country's political leaders, in the 1980s Margalit began a parallel career as host of Education Television's New Evening daily interview program on current affairs, and in the 1990s as host of Po-Politika (later Politika on Israel's Channel 2), a round-table talk show in front of a live audience on topical issues. The program, while earning high ratings, often got out of hand as participants tried to outshout one another. An endearing but probing style made Margalit a popular and controversial interviewer. In 2004, following differences with the Channel 2 management, he moved to Channel 10 to present a similar program, Politika-Plus. In 2001 he left Haaretz for Maariv as op-ed editor and political columnist, after having served briefly in 1992 as Maariv's editor following its purchase by Ofer *Nimrodi.

[Yoel Cohen (2^nd ed.)]