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Home , Levi Eshkol, Menachem Begin, The Prime Ministers, Yehuda Avner

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By Michael Freund

itting in his private office in Jerusalem, Yehuda SAvner still carries himself like a polished diplomat. The former ambassador and advisor to Israeli prime ministers is an energetic eighty-two year old, who has retained the gracious manner and self-deprecating humor that undoubtedly served Photos from The Prime Ministers, reprinted with permission from The Toby Press. him well throughout his years of service to the Jewish people. Photo: Jono David Working alongside towering figures such as Menachem Begin and Golda Meir, the religiously observant Avner was intimately involved in Is- rael’s statecraft for three decades, taking part in policy meetings and sitting in on talks with heads of state. He took assiduous and de- tailed notes throughout, in the process compiling a treasure trove of material on the contours and Jewish Action: Who is the most admirable course of decision-making in the political figure you have known and why? Jewish State. The result is The Prime Ministers, an Intimate Yehuda Avner: I would say that from the point Narrative of Israeli Leadership of view of affection, admiration and emotional (Toby Press, 2010), Avner’s lucid attachment, my answer without a doubt has to and crisply written account of be Menachem Begin. I joined the Israel Foreign many of modern Israel’s struggles Service in the late 1950s, and was soon sec- and triumphs. onded from the Foreign Ministry to the Prime Unlike almost any book pub- Minister’s Bureau where I worked for a whole lished before it, Avner’s volume pro- galaxy of Labor, socialist, secular, agnostic vides the reader with an authentic prime ministers—Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, and feeling of being a “fly on the wall” as Yitzhak Rabin. When Menachem Begin ulti- Israel’s leaders wage war and seek mately entered office in 1977, I, being an observant Jew, was ec- peace. It is rife with anecdotes that prompt laugh- static to find myself working for a leader who, in my eyes, ter and occasionally move one to tears, while offer- seemed to represent the quintessential Jew. ing extensive insight into Israel’s history and diplomacy. In an interview with journalist Michael Freund, Ambassador Avner shared some recollec- Michael Freund served as deputy director of communications under Israeli tions from his illustrious career. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during his previous term of office. He is the founder and chairman of Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based group that assists “lost Jews” seeking to return to the Jewish people.

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Begin came from a totally religious background, from Shabbat, which wasn’t very often, I would do so with my Brisk. He was a real “Yid.” While not perhaps totally obser- left hand. Or if I had to be driven somewhere to attend a vant in his private life, one reason being that his wife, Aliza, meeting that had life and death implications, I used to sit on was hardly religious, in public life he was strictly obser- the car floor. This certainly ensured I would not forget it vant—Shabbat, kashrut, everything. Among his many guises was Shabbat. Indeed, there were times when doing some- as commander of the Irgun when the British were hunting thing toch shinui, in a manner so very different from the him with a price on his head, he invariably assumed the role norm, reinforced my awareness of the sanctity of the day. of a yeshivah bachur or rabbi. JA: Were there times when your adherence to religious JA: As an observant Jew, you must have faced situations principles got you into hot water? in which there was a conflict between your religious obli- gations and the demands of your job. How did you deal YA: Yes there were. I recall an occasion in 1975 when US with this? Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was engaged in shuttle diplomacy, negotiating with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin YA: Occasionally and Egyptian Presi- I did find myself dent Anwar Sadat in in conflict on mat- an attempt to bring ters between reli- about an interim gious conscience agreement in Sinai. and the duties I The negotiations had to perform. In broke down because such situations I Rabin was not satis- consulted with fied with proposals the late Chief which impinged on Rabbi Shlomo Israel’s security. Goren who was Kissinger went off in chief chaplain to a huff, readying to the IDF when I place the failure of first entered the his mission on Israel. Foreign Ministry, This showdown oc- and was familiar curred just before from his own Shabbat and Rabin army experience asked me to immedi- with tasks a diplo- ately prepare our mat is often re- Yehuda Avner consulting with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, 1977. case for worldwide quired to do, such as broadcast before decoding urgent ca- Kissinger had a bles on Shabbat and so forth. He espoused what is known as chance to brief the pressmen accompanying him on his the famous Clausewitz Law, which states that war is an ex- flight back to Washington. A battle for public opinion was tension of diplomacy by other means. In other words, suc- on, not least to win over Congress and the American public cessful diplomacy can prevent war and, therefore, falls into at large to accept our version of things, and I was the only the category of pikuach nefesh, saving lives. This being so, one on the premier’s staff who was not only familiar with when potentially threatening circumstances required me to all the facts but also had the language competence to break Shabbat, Rabbi Goren ruled that I was obligated to do promptly make our case. But I told Rabin that Shabbat was so even in situations in which there appeared to be no im- upon us, and what he was asking me to do was not a matter mediate and present danger. of vital policy but of hasbarah (public diplomacy or advo- cacy), and for that I was not willing to violate Shabbat. Well, JA: Did Rabbi Goren impose certain restrictions on how do I remember the look of contempt on his face as I left. to go about violating Shabbat even in cases where it was The next day, Shabbat afternoon, after davening Min- deemed necessary? chah at the Gra shul in the neighborhood of Shaarei Chessed, I happened upon Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auer- YA: Yes, he certainly did. Rabbi Goren was emphatic that bach. He knew what I was engaged in, and he asked me in one must uphold the principle of shinui, of doing whatever Yiddish what was new. I told him what had happened, and one was doing with a difference, so as to remind one that it he said to me in Hebrew, “Are you sure you had all the in- is Shabbat. So, for example, if I had to write something on formation to make the right decision?” I took this to mean

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that I might not have made the right When Begin entered office in 1977, JA: So will we ever have decision after all, and immediately he made it obligatory that all official another Begin? started to walk back to the prime min- functions be kosher, and his hosts, in ister’s office. When I got there it was whatever country we visited, were YA: God-forbid the new generation of already Motzaei Shabbat. Rabin was in happy to oblige. leaders will have to go through the the midst of an kinds of trials and tribu- emergency Cab- lations that confronted inet session, and the previous ones. The as I walked in, previous ones were revo- he spat at me, lutionaries—the pioneers “Now you come? who, against all odds, lit- It’s too late,” and erally changed the he showed me course of Jewish history the briefing that by establishing the Jew- Kissinger had ish State. In the process, given the jour- a man like Menachem nalists accompa- Begin spent much of the nying him on his earlier years of his life flight back to constantly on the brink Washington, in of life and death. He had which he placed no Israeli army to de- all the blame for fend him or come to his the crisis on Is- rescue. So the Begin we rael’s shoulders. came to know as prime This had the minister was a product most serious con- of the Begin we knew as sequences. Presi- Yehuda Avner, Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and UN Secretary-General Kurt a hunted outlaw, the dent Gerald Ford Waldheim discuss Lebanese border tensions, July 22, 1977. Begin of the Gulag, the declared a re- Begin forever haunted assessment of the by the Holocaust. So no, whole Israeli-US relationship, begin- JA: Reading your book, regardless of I don’t think we shall have another ning with a partial arms embargo. To the political ideology of the prime Begin. But always we shall have prime this day I do not know if I did the right ministers involved, each one comes ministers leading an abnormal nation thing, and whether following Rabin’s across as someone infused with ide- in an abnormal land, for that is the na- instructions would have made a differ- alism and dedication to the country. ture of our country and people, as fore- ence or not. Is that a thing of our past? Why don’t seen in the Torah—“Am l’vadad we have leaders of a similar caliber yishkon, A people that dwells alone.” JA: You traveled with the prime min- today, or do we and we just don’t see isters on their trips abroad. Was that side of them as much? JA: If he were alive today and serv- kashrut ever an issue? ing as prime minister, how do you YA: I’ve given lots of thought to this. think Begin would deal with Iran’s YA: All the time! Until Begin, no prime Times have changed; people have threats to Israel and its drive to build minister of Israel bothered about changed. The likes of a Ben-Gurion or nuclear weapons? kashrut, whether at home or abroad. an Eshkol or a Golda or a Begin were Once, when we were returning from a all shaped by the turbulent times YA: Begin had a doctrine which said— trip abroad, I tried to explain to Rabin through which they lived, beginning one: If an enemy of our people says he what an educational impact it would with the turmoil of the Eastern Europe seeks to destroy us, believe him. And have on the local Jews if they knew of their youth. It was in that furnace two: Israel will never allow an enemy that wherever the prime minister of Is- that they were forged. Our new genera- of our people to manufacture weapons rael appeared at official functions he tion of prime ministers, beginning with of mass destruction against us. Iran fits was sure to be observing kashrut. But Bibi Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, was that bill totally, and Begin would act ac- Rabin simply did not understand me. born into a more individualistic and cordingly. Exactly how I cannot pre- Reared, as he was, in a totally secular more materialistic Israel. Neither of sume to know, but believing as he did environment, it was beyond his grasp. these men was hewn from the same in a God of Israel, and haunted as he “There’s no need,” he said. “I don’t flinty rock as their predecessors. But was by the Holocaust, and driven by want to bother the White House about that does not make them any less patri- the vow that he would never allow such matters.” otic as their predecessors. such a catastrophe ever to happen

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again, I can imagine that his policies, JA: One of the most remarkable for it I actually began learning how to overt and covert, would be aggressively things about your book is that one slaughter fowl for Shabbat meals. But I focused to make it plain to the West can read it and still not know was never sent there because at the last that if it doesn’t act, Israel, in one shape precisely what your own political minute the prime minister of the day, or another, would. views are. Levi Eshkol, needed someone with a strong command of English, and I was JA: What do you make of Israel’s has- YA: In my book I seek to be the fly on selected for the job. barah efforts these days and the the wall. JA: You served as a diplomat in seeming inability to get our message Washington. What do you think the across? JA: Why is it that so few religious future holds for American Jewry? people go into the Foreign Service? YA: When you look back, you see we YA: There is a law in physics that had no hasbarah problem prior to the YA: Let me first say that in the govern- quantity makes quality, so I have no 1967 Six-Day War. Then we were ment generally religious people are doubt that given the size of the Ameri- viewed as the can Jewish commu- little David nity, its future is not standing up to in doubt. However, the Arab Go- the quality of much liath. Now, of of American Jewish course, it is the life is in such de- other way cline due to inter- round. How- marriage and ever, and you assimilation that might be sur- the engine for its prised to hear longevity and pas- this: in my view sion is undoubtedly our hasbarah Orthodox. Ortho- has been emi- doxy is based not nently success- only upon ritual ful on the practice, but strategic level. equally upon Judaic Because scholarship, and where hasbarah both are tragically really matters is lacking in the other on Capitol Hill denominations and in other President Jimmy Carter and Prime Minister Menachem Begin, May 1, 1978. Ambassador where, too often, Washington Avner is in the white jacket on the bottom right, taking notes. rabbis are more corridors of buddies of their power. And there, congregants than their challenging if you look at the record, you see Israel represented more than they were be- leaders, and where the mantra of has enjoyed a fairly consistent record fore, not least in the highest echelons “tikkun olam” has become a palliative of bipartisan support and strategic co- of the IDF. However, the Foreign Serv- for Judaism. Tikkun Olam is a beautiful operation. It is on the tactical level of ice can be a difficult arena for a reli- concept but it is not Judaism per se. It daily news coverage and our inability gious person to work in simply because is central to it—“l’takein olam b’malchut to fill the TV screens with brilliant the chances are that for much of the Shakkai”—but the humanistic interpre- spokespeople of the caliber of an Abba time he can find himself, and his fam- tation of it has deprived it of much of Eban that we are failing badly. After all, ily, in what we call a hardship posting, its authentic Jewish relevance. On the where do most people derive their in- meaning somewhere in the Third positive side, there is more Jewish edu- formation if not from television? And World, an underdeveloped country, cation today in America than there has television largely deals in images, not where there is no Jewish community ever been before, which illustrates my facts. Our public diplomacy people or infrastructure to lead a Jewish life. thought that the two most important have not done a good job in branding And after all, most of the world is words in the whole of Tanach are Israel as a country that truly is demo- Third World. Indeed, at an early point “v’shinantam l’vanechah—Teach [the cratic, enlightened, and brimming with in my own career I was a candidate for words of Torah] to your children.” brilliant entrepreneurship. a posting to Burma, and in preparation

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