The Diplomat in Spain

Ambassador Daniel Kutner./ Photo: University of Charleston

Eduardo González. Madrid.

Daniel Kutner, who in summer 2015 will replace Alon Bar as Israel’s ambassador to Spain, was born in Buenos Aires 55 years ago, and emigrated to his current country as an adolescent. He has vast diplomatic experience in Latin America and the United States, and is a specialist in the history of Muslim countries and in matters of security and intelligence.

Kutner, whose posting was announced by the Israeli government in mid-September, was born in Bueno Aires in 1959 and emigrated to Israel at 14. He’s married to Shirley and has two daughters, Maia and Adi. In 1986 he received an M.A. cum laude in History of the Muslim Countries, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a graduate of the Senior Inter-Service Intelligence Course (2002) and in 2005 he obtained an M.A. cum laude in Political Science/National Security Studies at the University of Haifa. That same year, he graduated from the National Security College.

Daniel Kutner joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in January 1983. His first posts were in Bolivia, between 1986 and 1988 and Venezuela between 1988 and 1990, in both cases as Deputy Chief of Mission. Between 1996 and 1999 he took up the post of Consul for Academic Affairs at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.

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From 2008 he was posted in the US, where he maintained contact with Hispanic communities

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The future ambassador to Spain has held a number positions with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Center for political research, including Director for Palestinian and Jordanian Affairs, Director of the Division for Egypt and North Africa, acting director of the Division for Syrian and Lebanese Affairs, and Senior Analyst for North Africa and Syria and director of the Bureau for Economic and Strategic Affairs.

Between September 2008 and August 2012, Daniel Kutner assumed the position of Consul General of Israel to the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States, based in Philadelphia. He is the official representative of the State of Israel to the Mid-Atlantic Region, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, Kentucky, West Virginia and Southern New Jersey; according to information issued by Israeli diplomatic sources in the US. Kutner is currently director of the Division for Canada and the Hispanic communities in North America..