Franklin Summer Professor Assists Former Israeli Prime Minister With Autobiography

09/26/2006

In 2004, while Dr. Ahron Bregman interviewed a former Israeli Prime Minister for BBC, the Prime Minister got an idea. “The tapes were still rolling, and the Prime Minister stopped, he said, ‘I need you,’” describes Dr. Bregman. “He noticed that I remembered what he did not. I could fill in the blanks. When you do a documentary for BBC, you have to know the story. By the time I spoke with the Prime Minister, I had spoken to all of his aids and watched many hours of relevant footage. He could see I really knew his story,” he explains, “and so he asked me to help him with his book.”

Thus, Bregman became an important albeit discrete colleague to the Prime Minister. Bregman is so discrete in fact, he does not mention the name of the world leader, with whom he is spending so much time. “The book I am assisting him with is his story of how he tried to bring peace to the Middle East.”

Recently, Dr. Bregman spent six weeks with the Prime Minister, who gave him full access to his personal papers. The two men sat down for hours of taped conversations. When they were finished, Bregman returned to London. He unpacked his bags and immediately packed them again. It was time to return to Franklin College.

“Here I can really work,” says Dr. Bregman. “I can really concentrate. Three of my books, I either started or finished here. Every summer for five summers, I bring a special project to Lugano. This year my project is to complete a rough draft with the former Prime Minister.”

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