In the Baltimore Sun, American for Peace Now’s Ori Nir longs for Abba Eban:
As Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to (again) become the prime minister of Israel, as hate-monger Avigdor Lieberman prepares to be sworn in as Mr. Netanyahu’s foreign minister, and as security hawk extraordinaire Moshe Yaalon prepares to take over the defense ministry, I really miss Abba Eban. I miss Israel’s quintessential diplomat, who fought so eloquently and effectively to portray to the world a just, moral and peace-seeking Israel in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
Mr. Netanyahu cannot bring himself to utter the words "two-state solution." Mr. Lieberman is a serial provocateur who has called for the execution of Arab members of parliament, compared Israeli peace activists to Nazi collaborators and reportedly was a member of the Israeli terrorist, racist Kach movement before it was outlawed in Israel and the U.S. He will now be Israel’s face to the world. Mr. Yaalon believes that peace between Israel and the Palestinians is impossible and undesirable from a security perspective. One can only imagine what Mr. Eban — who once quipped that an opponent’s "ignorance is encyclopedic" — would have said had he known that a government like this would one day lead Israel, had he known that someone like Mr. Lieberman would one day be Israel’s global advocate.
