Annex A Launch of ‘Beating the Odds Together” Remarks by George Yeo 9 December 2019, Arts House
Allow me first to correct a mistake in the essay I wrote in the book. It was Levi Eshkol, not David Ben-Gurion, who was PM when Israel made the decision to help Singapore in 1965.
This book celebrates 50 years of Singapore-Israel ties. Our two countries share a deep friendship growing out of the critical assistance which Israel gave to a newly-independent Singapore. It is sustained not only by common strategic interests but also by the sharing of a certain kindred spirit, of having to survive under difficult odds.
On the way back from Beijing last Friday, I chanced to read an opinion piece written by Roger Cohen on the front page of the International New York Times. It was titled: “Incitement in Israel that killed Rabin.” Cohen was moved to write the piece after watching a preview of a movie by Yaron Zilberman about the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995. Cohen declared he was not given to hypothetical speculations but had one exception which haunts him still. It is: “What if Yigal Amir, a fanatical religious-nationalist Jew, had not assassinated Rabin?” Cohen added: “If only Rabin had lived. If only Israel had confronted the fanatical scourge in its midst before it was too late. If only Israel had understood earlier the poison of the occupation.”
By putting Cohen’s piece on the front page, the International New York Times is jumping into a furious debate among Jews and Israelis about the future of Zionism and Israel. Rabin signed the Oslo Accord in September 1993 with great reluctance. He gritted his teeth when he shook hands with Yasir Arafat in Washington DC, knowing that the only alternative to a compromise when both Israelis and Palestinians claimed the same land is, in Cohen’s words, the “moral corrosion involved in subjugating another people”.
The prospect of a two-state solution is steadily vanishing. Since the death of Rabin, Israeli society has progressively shifted to the right. Under pressure of a third general election within a year, PM Netanyahu is now pushing for the extension of Israeli sovereignty into the Jordan valley. In President Trump, Netanyahu has a strong supporter.
I, and many longstanding Singapore friends of Israel, are troubled by some of these trends in Israeli society. Singapore has always supported a two-state solution in the UN. Lee Kuan Yew only agreed to visit Israel in 1994 after Israel had signed the Oslo Accord. I sat in on the meeting when Rabin invited Lee Kuan Yew to visit Israel. Not only Rabin, but our MFA too, was surprised when Lee Kuan Yew accepted the invitation. It was his first and last visit to Israel.
Lee Kuan Yew understood the difficulty on both sides. When I was Minister for Trade and Industry, he asked me to suggest to the Palestinians that they should conduct a referendum on their side once a final deal was made in order to make it irreversible.
Land claims are zero-sum and always politically sensitive. I remember a dinner with Sheikh Qaradawi in Doha in 2004. He had been to Singapore before and count some admirers among Muslim Singaporeans. The conversation was all sweetness and light until I touched on Israel and Singapore’s relationship with Israel. He said his opposition to Israel had nothing to do with anti-Semitism. It was about what he described as the unjust and illegal expropriation of land from Palestinians.
It is easy from afar to look at the Middle East and opine on what is right and wrong on one side or the other. But having been to the Middle East many times, I am careful to be less judgmental. History in the Middle East is long and complicated. I had the pleasure of visiting Yemen as Foreign Minister in happier times with members of Singapore’s Arab Association. In Sana’a, Foreign Minister Dr Abubakr Al-Kirbi showed me the old Jewish quarter, except that there were no more Jews living there. Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, is an Orthodox Mizrahi from the Yemen. It was the despair among Jews of being expropriated in many countries at various times that fueled the Zionist cause. The debate about the future of Zionism is therefore an inextricable part of Israeli domestic politics.
In a deliberate simplification, Kissinger once remarked that Israel has no foreign policy, only domestic politics. After 50 years of friendship, we understand a little of this in our interactions with Israel. Where we can, in small ways, we try to promote greater understanding of Israel in Singapore and ASEAN, but especially among Singapore Muslims. I remember once arranging for the Israeli Ambassador to witness the korban in Sultan Mosque on Hari Raya Haji. Israeli embassy security was understandably anxious and insisted on the ambassador being accompanied by bodyguards. My Muslim friends took it all in stride and, after witnessing the animal sacrifice, which of course recalled Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, we had an excellent nasi bryani lunch. On another occasion, I arranged for the same ambassador to visit Madrasah Aljunied but this, unfortunately, was called off by the Israeli Embassy at the last moment because Israel had just killed a Hamas leader in Gaza.
A deep relationship takes time to develop and needs the nurturing of wise leaders. Until I read Peter Ho’s essay, I did not know of Rabin’s personal involvement in Israel’s initial military assistance to Singapore. Before the Israeli team of 7 military advisers led by Col Elazari left for Singapore in November 1965, Rabin, as Chief of General Staff, gave the following instructions:
“I want you to remember several things. One, we are not going to turn Singapore into an Israeli colony. Your task is to teach them the military profession, to put them on their legs so they can run their own army. Your success will be if at a certain stage they will be able to take the wheel and run the army by themselves. Second, you are not going there in order to command them but to advise them. And, third, you are not arms merchants. When you recommend items to procure, use the purest professional military judgment. I want total disregard of their decision as to whether to buy here or elsewhere.”
However, it took time for Israel to develop a deep understanding of Singapore. As Defence Minister Howe Yoon Chong’s bag carrier to Israel in 1980, I remember him being quite upset about the explicit pressure put on him by Israeli defense sales to buy Israeli-made weapons. Minister Howe complained to the Head of Mossad Yitzhak Hofi who fed this upwards. When IAF Commander David Ivry sent me a personal adviser in 1981, he made sure that Col Yaakov Gal was paid for by the IAF and not the RSAF. After Ivry, the IAF commander was Gen Amos Lapidot, then Gen Avihu Ben-Nun. During Gen Ben-Nun’s first visit to Singapore, he admitted in jest that his image of Singapore before coming here was there we were a backward country with people still living in trees.
We will always be a student to Israel in military matters and I hope we will always be eager students. Our bilateral relationship now extend beyond defence to many other fields and it has always been our fervent hope that Singapore can be a benefit to Israel to whom we owe a deep debt of gratitude.
In his essay, Bilahari asked provocatively whether Singapore is Israel in Southeast Asia. I was alarmed when Charlene Barshefsky, with whom I worked on the launch of the USSFTA
in 2000, wanted to compare Singapore to Israel. She had negotiated Jordan’s FTA with the US and saw similarities in our circumstances. I declined the honor but added that we don’t mind Israel being compared to Singapore.
With the rise of Asia, in particular the rise of China, it is natural that Israel should increasingly look east for opportunity. In 2005, I was invited to speak at the gala dinner of the American Jewish Committee in Washington DC. With the flags of US, Israel and Singapore behind me, I spoke about how the rise of Asia and China might create new political and economic opportunities for Israel, and enable it to transcend old restraints. China has excellent relations with Israel. According to a recent survey, a majority of young Israelis have a favorable view of China. It is the US which is pulling Israel back from even closer relations with China. Yet, China maintains good relations with all other countries in the Middle East as well, including Iran. There could be new ways to solve old problems.
During Lee Kuan Yew’s funeral, PM Karim Massimov was asked by President Nazarbaev to represent Kazakhstan. At dinner the night before, Massimov told me that the Chinese floated the idea of one day building a tunnel below the Straits of Hormuz connecting Iran to the UAE. Given the geopolitics, my immediate reaction was disbelief but, mulling it over since, I thought, well the kaleidoscope in the Middle East keeps turning and our minds should not be closed to new configurations. Just last week, King Salman sent a personal letter to the Emir of Qatar to attend a GCC meeting in Riyadh. Nothing stays still in the Middle East.
As Asia and China become more important to Israel, Singapore will hopefully become more useful to Israel. Our celebration today with the launch of the book ‘Beating the Odds Together’ is therefore not only about the past but also about a better future for both of us.