Hebrew University political scientist Shlomo Avineri, one of Israel’s best known academics and a man with declared doveish leanings, has been chosen by Foreign Minister Yigal Allon to be director-general of the Foreign Ministry.
His appointment, which must be ratified by the Cabinet before becoming official, immediately triggered angry reactions from Knesset hawks. Likud’s Haim Landau presented a motion deploring the appointment. He demanded that the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee discuss Avineri’s aptitude before the Cabinet approves the post (probably Sunday). Labor doves, on the other hand, welcomed the appointment.
Avineri, a world authority on Hegel and Marx, will take over in the spring from Avraham Kidron, career diplomat, who will now become Ambassador to The Hague. The Foreign Ministry deputy director-general, Ephraim Evron, a veteran diplomat who had been among the aspirants for the post, will stay on at the Ministry. Evron met with Allon last night and pledged his cooperation with Avineri. Sources inside the Ministry said today the appointment–which took almost the entire Ministry staff by surprise–had been broadly welcomed.
PROS AND CONS
Avineri’s appointment was seen as a novel departure and it aroused a buzz of interest and comment in political circles here. While Labor’s young doveish Knesseter Yossi Sarid termed the appointment “a refreshing change” and presented an urgent Knesset motion to this effect. Landau spoke of “sticking a knife in the heart of the nation.” Landau said Avineri was the “ideologue of the Palestinists.”
Landau said Likud would, therefore, fight the appointment. Social Welfare Minister Zevulun Hammer of the National Religious Party called the appointment “an unparalleled provocation.” He said the government declared its opposition to a third state–and was now appointing a director of the foreign service who favored this solution. Mapam and other leftist groups welcomed the appointment in statements issued today.
Avineri, 43, is presently dean of the social sciences faculty at Hebrew University. Born in Poland. he came to Palestine at the age of six. He has served as visiting professor at Yale and Cornell in the U.S. He was recently at the center of a public storm here when, in a lengthy radio interview, he attacked the government’s negative policy towards the Palestinian-PLO issue. The interview drew hostile reactions from Likud and other representatives on the Broadcasting Authority’s Council.
He urged that Israel declare itself ready to negotiate with any representative Palestinian group prepared to recognize the Jewish State and set up its own state alongside it, on the West Bank and Jordan. This declaration should apply to the PLO, too, he added. While in its present guise the PLO could not be a partner in negotiations; it could if it changed so as to comply with the conditions he had stipulated.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
