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Abba Eban: An Autobiography

Abba Eban

4.18 · Rating details · 38 ratings · 5 reviews

Brilliant orator, statesman & writer, Abba Eban reveals in depth his personal life story as well as his political life story & his political contribution of the State of Israel & important role on contemporary internat'l affairs. He frankly describes leading statesman of the period, gives insight into the intricacies of diplomatic manoeuvering, & vividly depicts the ordeal ...more

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hardcover, 640 pages

Published January 1st 1977 by Random House, Inc. (NY)

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Jun 14, 2014 Daniel Sevitt rated it really liked it

Shelves: auto-biography

My Daddy bought this for me a few years ago because he thought it was so good and he wanted to be sure I would read it. I finally got round to reading it a few weeks ago. In one of our last conversations I told him I was reading it, but I don't think he even remembered that he'd bought it for me. Funny. Now I've finished it and I can't talk to him about it. ...more

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Jul 02, 2014 Boris rated it really liked it

This is a fascinating book if you are interested in understanding how we got to where we are in Israel's position in the Middle East. So much has to do with personal relationships of the actors involved. Eban knew them all.
On November 1, 1917 when Abba Eban was two years old his mother left him home alone so she could translate a document for the Zionist office in London. What she translated was the text of the Balfour Declaration released the next day "expressing Britain's obligation to promo This is a fascinating book if you are interested in understanding how we got to where we are in Israel's position in the Middle East. So much has to do with personal relationships of the actors involved. Eban knew them all.
On November 1, 1917 when Abba Eban was two years old his mother left him home alone so she could translate a document for the Zionist office in London. What she translated was the text of the Balfour Declaration released the next day "expressing Britain's obligation to promote the establishment of 'a Jewish national home in Palestine'".
From his youth on Eban was personally involved in the establishment and early travails of the state of Israel. His autobiography tells the story from a personal point of view.
He was an eloquent spokesman for the Jewish state during its establishment in the United Nations and through the 1967 and 1973 wars. His hour to hour recounting of those events is gripping.
The best reason to read this book is to be reminded of the diplomatic details and wrangling that shaped the world's opinions and attitudes toward Israel. Read this book to understand why there are so many UN resolutions condemning Israel and almost none condemning an Arab country. Read this book to understand what the Green Line is and how it came about. Above all read the book to understand why and how it came to be that after almost seventy years most of Israel's neighbors won't recognize its right to exist.
Abba Eban's vision was that Israel would work with its neighbors as the Benelux communities have, small countries with close economic cooperation. In 1977 he wrote, "Our task must be to seek a political separation with the highest degree of mutual contact: to be neighbors neither ruling each other nor being ruled."
Eban vigorously supported Israel's existence as a Jewish state. He sums up the successes of the Zionist enterprise until 1977 this way:
"We have restored our nation's pride. We have given the Jewish people a renewed sense of its collective creativity. We have created a sanctuary in which our special legacy can be preserved and enlarged. We have taken Jewish history out of provincialism and caused it to flow into the mainstream of human culture. We have given mankind a special communication of social originality and intellectual vitality. We have revealed an immense power of Jewish recuperation. Above all, we have fulfilled our human vocation by redeeming hundreds of thousands of our kinsmen from sterility, humiliation, and death. So Israel has no cause for comprehensive apology.... Israel can only safely be led from positions firmly rooted in Jewish humanism, intellectual progress and social idealism."
Reading Abba Eban's account of his experience of the founding and governance of Israel until 1977 helped me understand how things work in the world of nation building and international diplomacy.
It's a beautifully written and eminently readable book.
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Jul 23, 2014 Mike rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-read-in-2014

Named Aubrey Solomon Meir Eban at birth, he was clearly destined by God to become "Abba" Eban - a father to his country.

From the moment he took his first breath in South Africa, his life was directed along the yellow brick road to Zionism. To study the birth of modern Israel, is to study the life of Abba Eban.

In his lifetime, he was the ultimate, consummate politician. He served as Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister, Education Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, ambassador to the United States and t ...more

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Mar 27, 2007 Conrad rated it it was ok

Shelves: owned, autobiography, history

Pretty unrevealing. He liked Harry Truman a lot.

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Oct 08, 2008 Yotamhod24 rated it it was amazing

awesome book by an unrecognized or often looked-over genius. he has helped shape my political opinions

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About Abba Eban

Abba Eban

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was an Israeli diplomat and politician, and a scholar of the Arabic and Hebrew languages.

In his career he was Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister, Education Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and ambassador to the United States and to the United Nations. He was also Vice President of the United Nations General Assembly and President of the Weizmann Institute of Science.