Five new ambassadors present credentials to Rivlin
There is little doubt that President Reuven Rivlin will go down in history as Israel’s football president.
Rivlin last week discussed football with Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, promising him that he would watch Tuesday’s game when Britain is pitted against Colombia. On Monday of this week, as new ambassadors presented credentials to him, Rivlin opened a discussion on football with Colombian Ambassador Carlos Arturo Morales, who came with his son Carlos and members of his embassy including both the military and Air Force attachés.
In his conversation with Morales, who is a resident ambassador, Rivlin sent greetings to President elect Ivan Duque who is contemplating moving his country’s embassy to Jerusalem, and is due to visit himself.
Morales said that he was very lucky to have been appointed ambassador to the Holy Land. He voiced appreciation for what Mashav, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation has done to train students from Colombia in agriculture, water management and community leadership. He also invited Rivlin to visit Colombia, and Rivlin said that it was his intention to go there.
Rivlin also congratulated Russian ambassador Anatoly Viktorov on the superb job that Russia has done in hosting the FIFA World Cup championship games, saying that the success of the endeavor was proof that Russia can do anything.
Rivlin also underscored that Russia, or the Soviet Union as it was then, was one of the first countries to recognize the State of Israel.
Explaining Russia’s ongoing presence in Syria, Viktorov said that what Russia is doing in Syria is well known. Russia began acting in Syria when the situation began to deteriorate. “Our presence there is to fight international terrorism and to stabilize the area and create a good neighbor environment,” he said.
The most meaningful discussion was the conversation that Rivlin had with non-resident Armenian Ambassador Armen Smbatyan. Careful not to use the word ‘genocide,’ Rivlin told him that both as a City Council member of Jerusalem and as a Member of Knesset, he had frequently voiced the opinion that the Jewish people who suffered so much could not ignore the suffering of another people.
He said that when Armenians had come to the old city of Jerusalem following the terrible tragedy that had befallen them during the First World War, they were warmly welcomed by the Jewish residents.
Rivlin said he believed that the Armenian catastrophe should be regarded in historical not in political terms.
Smbatyan, who is stationed in Cairo, had been to Yad Vashem the previous day. In commenting on the Holocaust, he remarked on how challenging it is for Israel to ensure that such a devastating calamity never again imposes itself on either the Jewish or the Armenian people. He saw a distinct unifying characteristic between Armenians and Jews in the dynamic of the human spirit and the will to survive. A DIPLOMATIC curiosity among the ambassadors was Dr. Alvin J. Schonfeld, the first ever ambassador to Israel of Grenada, an island in the Caribbean. Schonfeld, who is Jewish and keeps kosher, actually lives in Chicago – but he is the one who persuaded Prime Minister Keith Mitchell to upgrade relations with Israel, with the result that he was appointed ambassador, even though he doesn’t actually live in Grenada. A pulmonologist by profession, he has long been the Honorary Consul of Grenada in Chicago.
Following his meeting with Rivlin, he told The Jerusalem Post that many years ago, he and his family had vacationed in Grenada, and thought it was so beautiful that they went back again.
A few years back, Schonfeld, who is also an ardent Zionist, began coming to Israel for Agrotech, and kept telling Mitchell how valuable all that he learned there was to Grenada. Schonfeld actually suggested to Rivlin that Mitchell be officially invited to Israel, and Rivlin instructed his staff to take note.
New Zealand’s ambassador Wendy Jane Hinton, who is stationed in Ankara though not of Maori stock herself, wore a striking Maori cape over her dress.
Rivlin pointedly recalled that when he visited New Zealand in his capacity as Speaker of the Knesset, he opened the Israeli embassy in the capital Wellington, and looked forward to the day when New Zealand would establish an embassy, if not in Jerusalem then at least in Israel.
Hinton said that there were no plans for that, but conceded that one should never say never.