Abba Eban (1915 - 2002)

Israel's Foreign Minister, Ambassador to the UN

• Famous Quotes
• Six Day War
• On Yom Kippur War

Abba Eban, orator, Israeli statesman and diplomat, Foreign Minister from 1966 to 1974, was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and brought up in England. He studied oriental languages and classics at Cambridge University, England, where he was a lecturer in Arabic from 1938 to 1940.

During World War II he served in the British Army in Egypt and Mandate Palestine, becoming an intelligence officer in Jerusalem, where he coordinated and trained volunteers for resistance in the event of a German invasion.

In 1946, the Jewish Agency appointed him political information officer in London, where he participated in the negotiations with the British government and the UN concerning the establishment of the State of Israel.

When Israel became independent in 1948, he was appointed its first Ambassador at the UN.

From 1950 until 1959 Eban was both Israel's ambassador in Washington, D.C., and chief delegate to the UN. On his return to Israel in 1959, Eban was elected to the Knesset as a member of the Mapai party, and served under David Ben-Gurion as Minister of Education and Culture from 1960 to 1963.

His books include Voice of Israel (1957); My People (1969); My Country (1972), and Personal Witness (1992), as well as An Autobiography. In 2001, Abba Eban was awarded the Israel Prize for his lifetime achievement.

Other sources:

• Armistice Agreements - Statement to the Security Council 4 August 1949
  http://tinyurl.com/2urpkp
• The Six Day War - Statement to the Security Council 6 June 1967 http://tinyurl.com/2ad5aq
• The Yom Kippur War - Statement to the General Assembly 8 October 1973
  http://tinyurl.com/3584ol