Abba Eban (Hebrew: אבא אבן, born Aubrey Solomon
Meir on 2 February 1915, died 17 November 2002)
was an Israeli diplomat and politician.
Political career
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Eban moved to
England at an early age. He was educated at St
Olave's Grammar School, Southwark before
studying Classics and Oriental languages at
Queens' College, Cambridge. As a child, he
recalls being sent to his grandfather's house
every weekend to study the Hebrew langauge and
Biblical literature.[1] After graduating with a
"Triple-Starred First", he researched Arabic and
Hebrew as a Fellow of Pembroke College from
1938–1939. At the outbreak of World War II, Eban
went to work for Chaim Weizmann at the World
Zionist Organization in London from December
1939. A few months later he joined the British
Army as an intelligence officer, where he rose
to the rank of major. He served as a liaison
officer for the Allies to the Jewish Yishuv of
Palestine. Drawing on his linguistic skills, in
1947 he translated from the original Arabic,
Maze of Justice: Diary of a Country Prosecutor,
a 1937 novel by Tawfiq al-Hakim.
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". In 1947,
he was appointed as a liaison officer to the
United Nations Special Committee on Palestine,
where he was successful in attaining approval
for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and
Arab segments—Resolution 181. At this stage, he
changed his name to the Hebrew word Abba
(however it was seldom used informally), meaning
"Father", as he could foresee himself as the
father of the nation of Israel. Eban spent a
decade at the United Nations, and also served as
his country's ambassador to the United States at
the same time. He was renowned for his
oratorical skills. In the words of Henry
Kissinger:
"I have never encountered anyone who matched his
command of the English language. Sentences
poured forth in mellifluous constructions
complicated enough to test the listener’s
intelligence and simultaneously leave him
transfixed by the speaker’s virtuosity."
His polished presentation, grasp of history, and
powerful speeches gave him authority in a United
Nations that was generally skeptical of Israel
or even hostile to it. He was fluent in ten
languages.[2] In 1952, Eban was elected Vice
President of the UN General Assembly.
Eban left the United States in 1959 and returned
to Israel, where he was elected to the Knesset
(the Israeli parliament) as a member of Mapai.
He served under David Ben-Gurion as Minister of
Education and Culture from 1960 to 1963, then as
deputy to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol until 1966.
Through this entire period (1959–1966), he also
served as president of the Weizmann Institute in
Rehovot.
From 1966 to 1974, Eban served as Israel's
foreign minister, defending the country's
reputation after the Six-Day War. Nonetheless,
he was a strong supporter of giving away the
territories occupied in the war in exchange for
peace. He played an important part in the
shaping of UN Security Council Resolution 242 in
1967 (as well as UN Security Council Resolution
338 in 1973). Eban was at times criticized for
not voicing his opinions in Israel's internal
debate. However, he was generally known to be on
the "dovish" side of Israeli politics and was
increasingly outspoken after leaving the
cabinet. In 1977 and 1981 it was widely
understood that Shimon Peres intended to name
Eban Foreign Minister, had the Labor Party won
those elections. Eban was offered the chance to
serve as Minister without Portfolio in the 1984
national unity government, but chose to serve
instead as Chair of the Knesset's Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee from 1984 to 1988.
His comment that "Arabs never miss an
opportunity to miss an opportunity" (ie, for
peace) made after the Geneva peace talks in
December 1973, is often quoted. |
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