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Abba Eban, Famous Quotation �History teaches us that men and nations only behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.� ��� �I think that this is the first war in history that on the morrow the victors sued for peace and the vanquished called for unconditional surrender.� ��� �The Jews are the living embodiment of the minority, the constant reminder of what duties societies owe their minorities, whoever they might be.� ��� �When I was first here, we had the advantages of the underdog. Now we have the disadvantages of the overdog.� |
Abba Eban was Born in South Africa on February 2, 1915, and grew up in England, attaining honors at Cambridge University, where he honed his oratory as a leader of the Cambridge Union, the university debating society.Towards the end of his undergraduate studies, Eban concentrated on Arabic literature and history and through his studies of the Arab world, and contacts with Arab students he came face to face with the roots of the conflict between 'two nationalisms striving for fulfillment in the same country.' Early in 1940, Eban joined the British Army as an intelligence officer. After a brief posting in Egypt, he began a period as a "liaison officer of the Allied forces with the Jewish population in Jerusalem". This was an unusual assignment.
The British government in London and Jerusalem was administering Palestine in accordance with the 1939 'White Paper'. It was trying to limit the growth of the Jewish community there, and prevent Jews from carrying weapons, but at the same time, it encouraged Jewish units to carry out resistance and sabotage, in case Palestine should fall to the Nazis. After the war, Eban moved back to London briefly to work in the Jewish Agency's Information Department, from where he was posted to New York, where the General Assembly of the United Nations was considering the "Palestine Question". He was appointed as a liaison officer to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine.
After heavy lobbying by Eban and his colleagues, its recommendations came down with a narrow majority in favor of partitioning Palestinian to Jewish and Arab states. Shortly after the State of Israel was established, on May 14, 1948, Eban became its first permanent representative to the United Nations. He was 32 years old. His value to the emerging Jewish state as a diplomat was recognized quickly. David Ben Gurion, Israel�s first prime minister, called Eban �the voice of the Hebrew nation�.
He served as Israel�s foreign minister from 1966 to 1974, one of the most turbulent periods in the nation�s history. He used his rhetorical powers to try to persuade a skeptical world that Israel was acting properly in seizing the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Desert, Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem in the 1967 war .At the same time he believed Israel should negotiate peace in exchange for the territories it captured. Eban was well aware of the irony of his popularity abroad and his lack of a following at home. �I could have been elected prime minister if people abroad could vote in Israeli elections�, he once joked.
Abba Eban was a member of the American Academy of Sciences. His books include Heritage: Civilization and the Jews, Promised Land, My Country: The Story of Modern Israel, Abba Eban, Voice of Israel, The Tide of Nationalism, My People, The New Diplomacy, Maze of Justice, Personal Witness, and, in 1998, Diplomacy for the Next Century. He was chief consultant and narrator of the nine-part television program Heritage, and editor-in-chief and narrator of the five-part television series Personal Witness: A Nation is Born. He completed The Brink of Peace, a film on the Middle East peace process for the PBS television network in the U.S.
As his political career wound down, Eban turned to lecturing and public appearances. In 1984, he narrated and helped prepare �Heritage: Civilization and the Jews,� a 13-part television series about Jewish history. Later he wrote a book by the same name, one of his eight major works. In a final honor, he was awarded his nation�s highest accolade, the Israel Prize, on Israel�s 53rd independence day in 2001. In failing health, he was unable to attend the ceremony.
Abba Eban, known as the father of Israeli statesmanship, was laid to rest in the Kfar Shmaryahu cemetery. At his funeral, Mr. Shimon Peres who worked with Eban for decades called him �a man of peace who paved the way for peace. When Israel was attacked on all sides, he gave the message of hope for different relations with the Arab world and the Palestinians. He was Israel's voice in its most difficult hours, and explained Israel's yearning for peace. He served his people honorably, and his life will be remembered as one of the important chapters in Israel's history.�
Binyamin Netanyahu commented that he was one of the great diplomats of his era and set the standard for defending Israel in the courts of world opinion.