Judaism - History, Jewish History - General & Miscellaneous, Israel - Diplomatic Relations, Zionism, Middle East - Political Biography

Personal Witness

Name: Personal Witness
Author: Abba Solomon Eban
ISBN: 9780399135897

by Abba Solomon Eban

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Overview

Personal Witness, as its title indicates, is the passionate account of Israel's first five decades, written by one of its founding fathers, and it is both an objective and a subjective assessment of those history-making years. It is also the subject of a five-part PBS series to be broadcast in the United States and many other countries. Personal Witness is a political and social history of the highest level, presented without fear or favor - a glaringly candid testament written at a time when Eban is not restrained by the formalities of office or diplomatic niceties. Here you may meet Abba Eban, the man behind the statesman, writer, orator and historian - the man who said, "Men and nations sometimes behave wisely, once they have exhausted all the other alternatives." In the style that has won him renown, Eban traces Israel through all the fluctuations of its fortunes to which he was a witness and a participant: from its embattled beginnings and first struggle for international recognition, when "Israel held the joy of birth and the fear of death in a single taste"; through the successive wars and diplomatic crises, in which he was frequently a central spokesman and policymaker; to the dreams and often bitter conflicts of today. Along the way come splendid sidelights - reactions not only to events but to people, the men and women who strove to create Israel, and the international leaders who helped or hindered them. In intimate, often surprising vignettes, Eban depicts the world leaders he has encountered over more than four decades, offering frank comments on every American president from Truman ("If there was such a thing as an 'imperial presidency,' no one seemed to have broken the news to Harry S. Truman") to Bush; on leaders from Churchill, de Gaulle and Kohl to Sadat and King Hussein; and on the Jewish and Israeli gallery, from Ben-Gurion and Meir to Begin, Rabin and Shamir. In 1984, Heritage: Civilization and the Jews, Eban's enormously successful account

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This gripping political memoir by the former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and U.N. affords a privileged view of history being made. It begins as Eban, a British army captain during WW II, undertakes a mission to Jerusalem where he helps create an independent Jewish fighting force in the face of the horrific prospect of a Nazi-German conquest of Palestine. Eban, who also served as Israeli foreign minister, writes movingly of the birth of Israel in a war fought with Czech weapons because of Truman's arms embargo against the fledgling Jewish state. Eban suggests that U.S. military support could have prevented the Suez-Sinai War of 1956. He discloses Israel's strenuous behind-the-scenes efforts to prevent the 1967 Six Day War. Viewing both Arabs and Israelis as paralyzed by the weight of their historic experience, he urges the creation of a Palestinian self-governing entity, perhaps confederated with Jordan. Tied to a PBS-TV series, these stirring reminiscences are peppered with candid firsthand impressions of Ben-Gurion, Churchill, Sadat, Einstein, Gorbachev, Kissinger and dozens of others. Photos. (Oct.)

Library Journal

Eban, who has been at the center of Israeli history and world events for nearly half a century, is a keen observer of Zionist and international affairs. His latest book traces the confluence of political and historical forces that led to the emergence of Israel and subsequently shaped the history of the Jewish state. The book is replete with interesting details, personal anecdotes, and insightful analyses of key Zionist, Israeli, and world leaders. Finally, Eban offers his own perspective on recent events, including the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Middle East peace process. Neither a scholarly nor detached work, Personal Witness is an important contribution to the rich storehouse of Zionist memoirs so popular in recent years. Eban's sharp wit, elegant style, and passion all fuse to make this a highly readable and informative account of Israel and contemporary Jewish history.-- Mark A. Raider, Brandeis Univ., Waltham, Mass.

Brad Hooper

This distinguished Israeli diplomat and best-selling writer follows his 1984 "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews", a companion to the PBS series of the same name, with another volume being published in conjunction with a public television series. Eban ushers the reader through the tumultuous history of the State of Israel as observed and perceived by himself, taking the story back to his early life in Britain (though he was South African born) when he and the idea of Zionism first made their acquaintance in the 1930s. Israel's history between those seedling days to the present day (up to the point of the Persian Gulf War and the controversy over continued settlement of the West Bank) is refracted through Eban's considerable knowledge and unique perspective; this gush of writing, which loses none of its eloquence in its flood, is to be read for its historically important point of view (particularly concerning world figures in the post-World War II era), not for keen objectivity. Sure to be in high demand.