Yehuda Avner (1928–2015)

Much to unpack here. First of all, this was one of my late father's books, so there's that. Secondly, I read much of it in shul on Yom Kippur this year including the parts that dealt with the war that began on the exact same day 44 years earlier. Avner's account is such a captivating and authentic, insider's look at this and other hugely momentous events that I found myself laughing and crying at different times as the delightful, gossipy anecdotes were interspersed with precisely recounted conversations from the highest echelons of government.

I have never had much love for Menachem Begin before now, but Avner frames him as a man acutely in touch with history and his Jewishness. His devotion to democracy and his faith is stated baldly and simply. His skills as an orator, parliamentarian and defender of the State of Israel are detailed with admiration and little embellishment. It is a loving, warm and human presentation and it rightly forms the backbone of the book.

And, throughout the whole thing, there is Yehuda Avner himself, humble yet undeniably remarkable. This is the kind of inside storytelling that we won't see often again and it's brilliantly done.

Oddly, this was the second book in a row to namecheck someone I know. Last time around, it was a fictional character, this time a shout-out in the acknowledgements to an editor. Who knows what's next?… (meer)

A good storyteller should be able to put words into the mouths of real people that are so realistic that the reader can believe they were actually spoken. While some of the dialogue in THE AMBASSADOR is genuine, I can’t tell which is factual and which is imaginary.
When Shimon Peres was the Israeli Prime Minister he spoke at the annual Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day. He said: “We were ten years too late.” It sparked an idea to Yehuda Avner, Israeli ambassador and diplomat to several countries. THE AMBASSADOR is the result of that idea. The book, a novel, is a combination of reality and imagination. He and Matt Rees, journalist and novelist, began the book the day Avner heard he was dying. “The book is my legacy.”
In 1937, after much deliberation, the Peel Commision issued a report suggesting, for many reasons, to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. The report was not accepted. THE AMBASSADOR imagines what might have happened had Plan gone forth.
President David Ben-Gurion appointed Dan Lavi Israeli Ambassador to Germany. His mission was to save as many German Jews as possible by enabling them to leave Germany. To do so, he had to work with Adolf Eichmann who was the head of the SS Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Germany. Needless to say, Eichmann’s cooperation came with many strings attached. At one point, after the murders began, Eichmann said that mass shootings will have a negative effect on the men. Gassing will be less stressful.
The book delved into the reasons Hitler was willing to let the German Jews leave as well as the roadblocks established to prevent that from happening, the feelings of the German Jews about the need to leave, and what other countries, including the United States, wanted in return for their help. It also discussed what life was like for the Jews who left Germany as well as for those who decided to remain.
Ben Gurion wanted to use Mossad to kill Hitler. Roosevelt also expressed a similar sentiment about the German operation: “Well, when you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.” There were pros and the cons. Lavi is against it. Thinking of the future, it was noted, “No German was left untainted by this persecution of the Jews....They were all in it, just as all Jews were on the receiving end....If inner truth contradicted the aims of the Nazi regime, almost every one would defy his true self than go against the Gestapo. Their minds had become like homes they never entered, whose rooms were unlit. Because the alternative was a devastating explosion that would collapse the ceiling and rip out the pipes.”
One character pointed out that while considering having Mossad kill Hitler or Eichman, they would be held to account for their action or inaction after they returned.
Interesting fact: Eichmann spent a couple of weeks masquerading as a journalist in Palestine, until the British discovered his SS affiliation and deported him....He considered himself an expert on Jews and Jewish life and often displayed to Dan how little knowledge it took to be considered a specialist by the Nazis.”
Interesting quotations: “Draxler’s face was marked with hatred so intense Dan thought it could leave a bruise.”
At the Chancellory “...the motionless guards at each side like hinges, screwed into place by their steel helmets.
“It’s too late at night for philosophy. You’ll have nightmares.” “Sleep is my only escape from this nightmare.”
”Look at these provincials. In Berlin I knew everyone. Counts and countesses. The great musicians and writers. The leaders of industry. I knew all the best people.” Dan: “But not all the right people.”
This book deserves more than five stars. Unfortunately, it breaks one of my cardinal rules because it has too many unnecessarily short chapters that I believe insult the reader’s intelligence. THE AMBASSADOR was a finalist in the Jewish Book Awards 2015. It deserves more than five stars. Unfortunately, it breaks one of my cardinal rules because it has too many unnecessarily short chapters that I believe insult the reader’s intelligence. It’s a superb view into what might have happened if only....… (meer)