Avner, Israel’s New Envoy to Britain, Presents His Letters of Accreditation to the Queen

Yehuda Avner, the new Israeli Ambassador to Britain, today presented his letters of accreditation to the Queen, together with the letter formally recalling Shlomo Argov, disabled by a terrorist attack in London last year. Avner, 53, is the first British-bom Israeli to serve as Ambassador in his native country.

This afternoon he told journalists that he had a 10-minute private conversation with the Queen who, he said, “clearly displayed understanding of the Middle East region in general and of the major issues of the day.”

Anticipating his diplomatic activity here, he said “this is Britain and I expect to get a fair hearing.” From his initial soundings he said he sensed that the British Foreign Office was frustrated by developments in the Arab world and “curious to look again at the Middle East in terms of its realities.”

“London is now ready to enter a dialogue with the government of Israel,” he declared. In particular, he said he would give “high priority” to persuading Britain to drop its ban on arms sales to Israel imposed by the European Economic Community (EEC) after the invasion of Lebanon last summer.

Avner’s initial contacts with the British government, he disclosed, included a talk with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the day after his arrival last week. It took place in the royal tent at a garden party in Buckingham Palace.

An observant Jew, Avner confirmed that after consulting with his wife and children he had initially declined the London Ambassadorship when his name was first mentioned in connection with it eight months ago. “Everything I cherish is in Jerusalem,” he said. But when the offer was confirmed, he accepted it “out of a sense of mission.”

Avner was bom in Manchester 53 years ago, the youngest of seven children. He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that he first become caught up in Zionism when he attended a camp of the Bnai Akiva religious youth movement in 1942, which proved to be “a turning point in my life.” Five years later, in the final year of the British Mandate, he went to Jerusalem and served with the Haganah when the city was besieged by the Arab Legion.

He was introduced to his wife, Mimi, by her late sister, Esther Cailingold, another immigrant from Britain who died heroically while defending the Jewish quarter of the Old City.

Avner’s only subsequent prolonged period back in Britain was between 1950 and 1954 when he served as secretary of the Bnai Akiva movement and also attended the London College of Journalism. His later visits occurred more recently when he accompanied both Premier Yitzhak Rabin and Premier Menachem Begin, to whose staff he was attached as a speech writer and adviser.

Speaking humbly of this morning’s ceremony at the palace, Avner said that during it he was less aware of his personal position, as a former British citizen, than the fact that he was the Ambassador of the State of Israel and the 4,000-year-old city of Jerusalem.