Daniel Seaman

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Daniel Seaman is the director of the Israel Government Press Office (GPO), which is a part of the Office of the Prime Minister in Jerusalem.

Seaman was appointed in December 2000 and is responsible for working with thousands of foreign media who cover news events in Israel. He had worked for the GPO for several years and was the first civil servant promoted to Directorship of the GPO after a period of 30 years.

Seaman, who received the Israel Outstanding Civil Service Award in 2000 for coordinating the international press coverage of Pope John Paul II's visit to the Holy Land in March 2000, is credited for improving Israel's image. He has implemented several measures which have improved working conditions for foreign journalists in Israel.

Seaman was directly responsible for coordinating the press coverage of several heads of states visits to Israel including US President Clinton, British PM Tony Blair, Canadian PM Jean Chrétien, Australian PM John Howard, Jordan's King Hussein and Chinese Chairman Jiang Zemin. He was a member of the Israeli press delegation to the Aqaba Peace Talks.

He is one of the foremost experts on the foreign press coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict, as a result of having headed the Information and Foreign Press Departments of the GPO during the 1990's. He also served as the Foreign Press Liaison for the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson's unit as an officer.

Seaman was born on a US Air Force base in Germany in 1961. His family emigrated from the United States to Israel in 1971 and settled in the port city of Ashkelon.

He enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces serving in an elite paratroop unit in 1979 and is a veteran of the 1982 Lebanon War.

Seaman completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, with honors, at the City University of New York's Hunter College, while serving at the Consulate General of Israel in New York between 1983 and 1989.

He has served as an advisor and spokesperson to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

Seaman is mentioned extensively in Stephanie Gutmann's book - "The Other War - Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy". Chapter 10 - "His Own Private Jihad" is specifically about his efforts to curb Palestinian influence on the media coverage.[(http://www.encounterbooks.com/books/otwa/otwa.html)]

Seaman lectures on Israeli and Middle-Eastern affairs and appears frequently on dozens of international news media outlets.

Seaman, who resides in Jerusalem, is married and has three children.