Abba Eban |
November 14, 1970
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Abba Eban
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Israel; Israel's first Ambassador at the UN; Author, My People: The Story of the Jews
Club Introduction
I was privileged, about a year ago, along with several other officers of The Commonwealth Club, to lead a study tour on behalf of The Club to the state of Israel, among other interesting parts of the Middle East and southern Europe. There were some 40 of us on that trip, and we spent a lot of our time extolling the benefits and the healthful climate that we have here in California. Tonight our guest is being given equal time on behalf of his home country, and from what I read of his prowess in this field of public speaking in The New Yorker this week, and in other recent publications, I'm sure the match will be quite even - one to 40.
Incidentally, we had a most interesting tour of Israel at that time and were given an interesting briefing as well by the Israeli government. We were there during the crossing of the Gulf of Suez into Egypt and there was some moment of doubt on our parts as to whether we'd be back in order to participate in The Club activities this year.
Generally, in introducing speakers before The Commonwealth Club, I try for a very brief introduction covering only the highlights of a speaker's career. Unfortunately, tonight that is a difficult, if not impossible, task because our distinguished guest has held so many key positions during his career that it was very difficult for me to know where to pick and choose, and I feel therefore I must recite a few of them for you.
Quite appropriately, the foreign minister is a graduate of the great English University of Cambridge, since only this week he was compared favorably to Winston Churchill on the pages of The New Yorker. Mr. Eban commenced his important work in the Middle East in 1941, when he served with the Allied headquarters in Jerusalem. He later became Chief Instructor of the Middle Eastern Center for Arab Studies in Jerusalem, and joined the Jewish Agency, in 1946. Later, he became Liaison Officer with the United Nations (I believe) Special Committee on Palestine, and Representative of the Provisional Government of Israel to the United Nations.
From 1949 until 1959 he served as Permanent Representative of the state of Israel to the United Nations, and during most of that time was also Ambassador to the United States. Following that period of service, he became, in turn, Minister without Portfolio, Minister of Education, Deputy Prime Minister, and subsequently Foreign Minister - so you can see the difficulty I had in sorting out any of those particular parts of his distinguished background.
As if his political service were not enough, however, the foreign minister has been president of the Weizmann Institute, and is the author of many important books on Middle Eastern affairs. It is with great pleasure that we welcome to San Francisco this evening His Excellency Abba Eban, Foreign Minister of Israel, for his fourth Commonwealth Club appearance, and we hope not his last.
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