The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership

The Prime Ministers

By the Author

The Young Inheritors: A Portrait of Israel’s Children
(Photographs by Gemma Levine)

Yehuda Avner

The
Toby Press

The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership

Third Edition 2010

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© Yehuda Avner 2010

The right of Yehuda Avner to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

ISBN
978 159264 278 6,
hardback

A
CIP
catalogue record for this title is
available from the British Library

Printed and bound in the United States

To my wife, Mimi,

our children,

our grandchildren,

and our great-grandchildren

This is not a conventional biography or memoir, nor is it a work of fiction. It deals with factual events and real people, most notably Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin, all of whom I served in one capacity or another, junior and senior, over many years, and all of whom I have tried in these pages to bring back to life as I recall them. Having worked in their proximity in all manner of situations, good and bad
–
sometimes so bad as to call into question Israel’s very survival
–
I have sought here to resurrect episodes which illustrate their responses in times of stress, recreate some unforgettable intimate moments, and reenact their intertwining relationships and their dealings with presidents, prime ministers and other dignitaries
–
all ratified, so to speak, by the viewpoint of the proverbial fly on the wall.

In so doing I have taken certain storytelling liberties by resorting to time-honored literary devices of narrative, dialogue,
scene-setting
, speech editing, impressionistic description, characterization, and reasonable constructs of conversations, without impinging too much, I trust, on historical truth.

Inevitably, an autobiographical footprint tiptoes
–
often stomps
–
through this personal narrative, firstly to illustrate the times into which I was born, secondly to introduce some extraordinary characters whose paths I crossed along the way, and thirdly and most significantly, to recapture how I came to be in the company of such amazing
individuals
, these early leaders of Israel, who were thrust into my life with such collision force that their hold on my imagination is intensely alive and personal still. I am everlastingly grateful for having had the opportunity to work for and alongside such prime ministers, and for having had my eyes opened to the fact that occasionally such larger-than-life champions of the Jewish people exist on earth.

For reasons which the reader will discover as the story unfolds, the most exceptional among them, in my eyes, was Menachem Begin.

Yehuda Avner

Jerusalem, 2010

Very many of the following pages are based on primary sources, not least my own copious records and notes. They exist because one of my tasks as a staff member for four prime ministers was to serve as their note-taker. Hence, in the preparation of this work I have been able to dip profusely into my own treasure trove of transcripts and personal diary notes. Additionally, I have had access to official correspondence and documentation, have perused biographies, have referenced autobiographies, and owe much to the testimony of people who feature prominently in this work and who gave generously of their time. I refer in the first instance to Yechiel Kadishai, Menachem Begin’s closest aide and confidant, who was forever willing to share with me particulars of events to which he was witness, and answer my many questions concerning the prime minister’s attitudes and inner thinking, though unwilling, rightly, to share responsibility with what I did with them. My profound gratitude to The Rt. Hon. Sir Martin Gilbert, who, with his learned historian’s eye, perused the typescript, offered important suggestions, and graciously composed the foreword. Equally, to the Honorable Samuel Lewis, former United States ambassador to Israel, who not only shared with me his exhaustive oral history covering his tour of duty in Israel, but also rendered meticulous and invaluable help in my attempt to recreate certain of his crucial encounters with Prime Minister Begin. David Horovitz, editor-in-chief of the
Jerusalem Post
, kindly read the draft manuscript, and with his wise and critical attention to detail, offered invaluable suggestions.

It is with longing that I recall the late Harry Hurwitz, founder and first president of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, Jerusalem, who vetted many of the Begin pages as they were initially composed. I venerate, too, the late Eric Silver, an assiduous journalist and a personal colleague, who himself authored an important biography on Menachem Begin, and who subsequently deposited with me his extensive archive, which includes exclusive interviews with a number of the foremost actors gathered in these pages.

My thanks to all at the Begin Heritage Center, and most particularly to its director of information resources, Yisrael Medad, who reviewed the chapters relating to Begin’s command of the Irgun. Equally, I wish to thank the directors and staff of the various repositories in which I worked, or with which I corresponded, including the Israel Government Archives, the Jimmy Carter Library, and the Ronald Reagan Library.

My gratitude to all at
The
Toby Press for their judicious and expert attention to the book at every stage of publication, and most particularly to Matthew Miller, the man behind it all, for his patience and good fellowship. I am forever grateful to Deborah Meghnagi Bailey for her scrupulous and discerning editing in the highest professional fashion. Finally I am indebted to my literary agent, Joan Raines, of Raines and Raines, New York, without whose infinite persistence, encouragement, and indispensable advice I doubt I would ever have reached the last chapter.

Menachem Begin: Israel’s most extraordinary prime minister, infused with an overwhelming sense of Jewish history, a man of acute integrity, vision and compassion, who led a brutal fight against the British in Palestine, negotiated the historic peace treaty with Egypt, and launched a controversial war in Lebanon which was followed by his retirement into mysterious seclusion.

David Ben-Gurion: Legendary founding prime minister of the State of Israel, first minister of defense, intrepid pioneer and overseer of the country’s initial development, who pugnaciously fought Begin every step along the way until, mellowed by age, sought a reconciliation.

Zbigniew Brzezinski: Polish-born national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, who protested his admiration for Israel but never showed it.

Yosef Burg: Israel’s longest-serving minister, brilliant scholar in both religious and classical studies, witty, sharp, and head of the negotiating team in the failed talks dealing with Palestinian self-rule in the late 1970s, early 1980s.

Esther Cailingold: Young teacher from England who died heroically in the hopeless battle to save Jerusalem’s Old City from Arab conquest in the War of Independence and whose younger sister, Mimi, the author eventually married.

Jimmy Carter: American president with whom Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin exchanged sharp words, as did Prime Minister Menachem Begin, but who, nevertheless, took a political gamble of historic dimensions in successfully navigating the Israel-Egyptian peace treaty, and then spent much of the rest of his life badmouthing Israel.

Moshe Dayan: Illustrious one-eyed warrior, architect of the Israel Defense Forces, darling of the nation, hero of the Six-Day War, and a wretched casualty of the Yom Kippur War.

Princess Diana: Enchanting first wife of future king of England, Charles, Prince of Wales, who thought Israel a “plucky little country.”

Abba Eban: South African-born and Cambridge-educated, Israel’s foreign minister, who was lauded in capitals the world over for his intellectual sophistication and Churchillian eloquence, but was derided at home as lacking strategic acumen.

Queen Elizabeth
II
: Long-serving British monarch who was mystified at the author’s British origins when he presented his credentials as Israel’s ambassador to the Court of St. James’s.

Levi Eshkol: Seemingly lackluster prime minister who knew every inch of every water pipeline in Israel, and who displayed piercing diplomatic shrewdness in his efforts to avert the Six-Day War, yet readied the
IDF
for the fight of its life to win it.

Max Fisher: Detroit philanthropist, chairman of the board of the Jewish Agency, and trusted adviser on Israel and Jewish affairs to every Republican U.S. president since Eisenhower.

Gerald Ford: Foreign affairs neophyte who assumed the presidency of the United States following Nixon’s resignation, and who triggered a grave crisis in the Israel-U.S. relationship when Prime Minister Rabin refused to relinquish strategic Sinai assets in Egypt’s favor.

Yaakov Herzog: Brilliant Talmudist, philosopher and statesman, diplomatic adviser to Premier Eshkol, who was at one and the same time offered the posts of chief of the prime minister’s office and chief rabbi of Great Britain.

Lyndon Baines Johnson: Beefy Texan rancher who, having failed to confound Egypt’s hostile designs which culminated in the Six-Day War, was the first U.S. president to throw in America’s strategic lot with Israel by becoming the Jewish State’s major source of sophisticated weaponry.

Yechiel Kadishai: Menachem Begin’s amiable longtime aide, chief factotum, and intimate confidant.

Henry Kissinger: A German-Jewish refugee who became secretary of state of the United States. In seeking to contain the Cold War reverberations of the Yom Kippur War, he sometimes aroused the ire of Prime Minister Golda Meir. Under President Ford, became virtually sovereign in setting the course of American foreign policy, thereby sometimes arousing the ire of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Yossel Kolowitz: Yeshiva kid who survived the Holocaust by performing in the “Auschwitz Cabaret,” whom the author met en route to Palestine. He attempted to jump ship, was arrested by the British, enlisted in the Irgun, and, decades later, met the author again under unexpected circumstances.

Samuel Lewis: American ambassador who earned Prime Minister Begin’s confidence for much of the time, and whose appealing personality, diplomatic drive, and shrewd intuition won him access to numerous friends in high places.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe: World-renowned luminary who not only ignited Jewish souls the world over but also the reverence of a number of Israel’s leaders, most notably Menachem Begin.

Golda Meir: Foreign minister who felt abandoned by fellow socialists and by African leaders to whose nations she had extended aid, but who, as prime minister, while totally ignorant of things military, emerged as one of Israel’s greatest war leaders.

Richard Nixon: American president whose reputation as an
anti-Semite
did not preclude his appointment of a German Jewish refugee as his secretary of state, nor his resolve to massively aid the Jewish State when its survival was at stake and when he himself was enmeshed in the Watergate scandal, fighting for his own survival.

Shimon Peres: Forever suave and urbane with a propensity for hyperbole and tautology, popular worldwide as a peacemaker, and Yitzhak Rabin’s nemesis for many years. Despite an illustrious career, he could never shed his reputation as an inveterate election loser, but he ultimately became one of the country’s most esteemed presidents.

General Ephraim Poran: Commonly known as Freuka, served as military secretary first to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and then to Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

Yitzhak Rabin: A conceptualizer with a highly structured and analytical mind,
IDF
chief of staff during the Six-Day War, ambassador to Washington, prime minister between 1974 and 1977 and again between 1992 and 1995 when, pursuing a controversial peace policy, was assassinated by a nationalist zealot.

Ronald Reagan: American president who led through instinct, and whose apparent reliance on cue cards belied his keen grasp of the Cold War power play and his resolve to stand by Israel despite frequent misunderstandings.

William Rogers: U.S. secretary of state whom Nixon and Kissinger let stew in his own juice when it suited their purposes.

Sam Rothberg: Plain-talking businessman from Peoria, Illinois, veteran leader of the Israel Bonds organization and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University, whom Begin sometimes treated as an ex-officio cabinet officer.

Anwar Sadat: President of Egypt, a man of grand gestures, who was convinced his peace mission was a sacred calling, was irritated at Begin’s insistence on precise agreements, yet forged with him a bond of mutual trust and friendship so deep as to leave Begin distraught when his peace partner was assassinated.

Margaret Thatcher: British prime minister dubbed the “Iron Lady” who, by reputation, surrounded herself with people she could trust to follow orders, not to give them, but who greatly admired Jews, and, though opposing Begin’s settlement policies, had high regard for his principles and convictions.

Harry Truman: Retired U.S. president who invited the author to join him on a walk in which he related how his old Jewish pal from World War I, and later his partner in a haberdashery business, helped persuade him to recognize the Jewish State against the advice of cabinet colleagues.

Adi Yaffe: Prime Minister Levi Eshkol’s chef de bureau, who initially paved the author’s way into the foreign service and then the prime minister’s office.