A cohesive force
While the different partners in the government coalition are at odds over family reunification between Arab-Israelis with Palestinian spouses, in other areas, including the government, everything is being done to prove national cohesion despite religious and ethnic diversity. The prime example is the declaration by Igal Carmi, chairman of the Israel Olympic Committee, and Dr. Shuki Dekel, chairman of the Israel Paralympic Committee, that the teams going to Tokyo include Jews, Muslims and Druze – who will compete together under the flag of Israel and who will train together, live together and eat together. The army is supposed to be an equalizer, but maybe sport is more so.
■ SOMETIMES, IT pays to lose. Asaf Zamir, Consul-General-designate in New York, as deputy mayor and acting mayor of Tel Aviv, ran against his boss, Ron Huldai, in 2018 and lost. But a year later, he was elected to the Knesset on the Blue and White ticket, and soon afterward was appointed tourism minister. Critical of then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Zamir followed his conscience and resigned. Blue and White leader Benny Gantz did not include him in the list for the next Knesset election, and it seemed that Zamir’s political career might be over. But then came the change of government, and the former tourism minister is heading for the Big Apple. Meanwhile, Huldai, who based on his popularity as mayor, believed that he had a good chance of unseating Netanyahu, discovered that there’s a big difference between local politics and national politics and bowed out of the race. For the time being, at least until the next mayoral election in 2023, he’s still the kingpin of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and is among the country’s longest-serving mayors. He was first elected in 1998.
Among the first people to congratulate Zamir was Eric C. Goldstein, the CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York, who issued a statement in which he said: “We welcome Asaf Zamir as Israel’s new Consul General in New York. Asaf brings deep knowledge of the American Jewish community to this position, and his appointment is an important new opportunity to build stronger bridges between world Jewry and Israel. We very much look forward to welcoming the new Consul General, his wife Maya and their baby daughter to New York.” The move may also be beneficial career-wise to Zamir’s wife, Maya Wertheimer, who is an actress, model and television presenter. Their infant daughter, Asia, will also be a great asset as an icebreaker.
■ PRESIDENT REUVEN Rivlin and philanthropist and medical researcher Dr. Miriam Adelson, who is also the publisher and owner of the freebie tabloid Israel Hayom, were awarded honorary doctorates this week by Ariel University. The occasion also marked the opening of Ariel’s medical school named for Adelson’s late husband, mega philanthropist Sheldon Adelson.
Two years ago, Miriam Adelson received an honorary doctorate from Bar-Ilan University in recognition of her contribution to medicine, philanthropy and humanitarian needs. In 2018, US president
Donald Trump presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is America’s highest civilian award.
For Rivlin, who was involved in the political controversies that mired Ariel’s recognition as a university, prior to the advent of Naftali Bennett as education minister, his award was an emotional experience.
“I am standing here, in the halls of academe of Ariel University in Samaria and my heart is full of deep appreciation for the honor bestowed on me in your decision to award me an honorary doctorate,” he said. “And, to be honest, my heart is pained that my late wife Nechama, may her memory be a blessing, who loved so much to learn, to understand and to educate, could not be here at my side. She, who worked in research her whole life and for whom every new development and article in the fields she loved sparked a new light in her, even long after she retired.”
■ MOST PRESS photographers seldom bother with their appearance. They wear schlumpy clothes, and before sneakers became the vogue
few press photographers bothered to clean their shoes. The only times that male photographers put on a suit and tie was when they were assigned to accompany a president, prime minister or foreign minister on an official visit abroad. Most female photographers, likewise, wear jeans and T-shirts. The religiously observant ones wear skirts or long dresses, but for the most part, they don’t bother with their appearance. One of the notable exceptions to this habit is society photographer Sarah Davidovich, who is always immaculately groomed, regularly visits the beauty parlor to make sure that not a hair is out of place, has a preference for French designer outfits, but is happy to wear Made in Israel, providing that it looks like Made in France or Made in Italy. Born with a naturally sunny disposition and a fearless approach to people in high places, Davidovich has for more than 30 years photographed and been photographed with every president and prime minister of Israel. She’s been on friendly terms with all of them, but equally friendly with floor washers and low-ranking secretarial staff. With a smile
that would attract every toothpaste manufacturing company, and a charming brand of chutzpah, Davidovich gets into places that no one else is permitted to enter, and immediately makes friends with anyone and everyone, and is even allowed to take photographs of clandestine meetings. She doesn’t use the camera in her cellphone, except for selfies. She carries a small, very efficient camera in her purse, snaps away madly and then asks someone else to take photographs of her with one or more of the people she has just photographed, using her camera. Although they supply rival publications, Davidovich works closely with her good friend and fellow Jerusalemite Eti Salansky, who is also a society photographer.
Davidovich, who knows a thing or two about politics, told Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, when it seemed that all the odds were stacked against him, that he would one day be prime minister. She reminded him of that last week. She is equally certain that although his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, is currently
going through a bad patch, the
day will come when he returns to the Prime Minister’s Office.
■ FROM TIME to time, veteran Jerusalem-based diplomat and historian Moshe Yager, 90, has been invited to lecture to the Israeli Military History Association, whose members are mainly IDF, Mossad and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) retirees. Members of the association are also interested in learning about Israel’s foreign service and foreign policy, on which Yager is an expert. Yager, who was born in Buenos Aires to parents who emigrated from Galicia, subsequently came with them in 1935 to what was then Palestine and settled in Haifa. Following his army service, Yager enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where his chosen fields were political science, Islamic studies and history – all of which have served him well. He joined the Foreign Service in 1956, at a time when Israel’s foreign relations were nowhere near what they are today. Over the years, as he rose in the ranks, he was heavily involved in developing new diplomatic relationships for Israel. He served in various positions abroad, and also was part of the Foreign Ministry’s administrative staff, when he was home in Israel. In the course of lecturing to the IMHA, it dawned on Yager that there was no comprehensive and well-ordered book on the early years of Israel’s foreign service – at least not one of which he was aware. So, he decided, perhaps he should write one. When the IMHA learned about it, its members decided to publish it, and the launch, in the form of a symposium, was held last week in Tel Aviv. Titled The Beginnings of Israel’s Foreign Service 1948-1967, the book deals with how the Foreign Ministry was created and developed by Moshe Sharett and Walter Eytan, how it coped with various crises and how emotional it was for Israeli ambassadors to come to countries whose Jewish populations turned out in droves to welcome them. The best known of these was when Golda Meir went as Israel’s envoy to Moscow and was mobbed by Jews, many of whom had previously been afraid to reveal their Jewish identities. In Yager’s view, this, no less than the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War, lit the flame of Zionism in the hearts of Soviet Jews.
Yager also examines the 1949 armistice agreements with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, as well as the problematic aspects of UN Security Council Resolution 242 in the wake of Israeli conquests during the Six Day War.
As far as foreign policy and internal strife is concerned, Yager’s focus is primarily on Sharett, Meir and Abba Eban.
He has not yet given much thought to an English language edition of the book, mainly because he is not sure that it would be of interest to non-Israeli readers. But perhaps other ambassadors, whose mother tongue is English, might be interested in translating it. Time will tell.