THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 5, 1997 TAG: 9701060174
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY JEREMIAH CRONIN
LENGTH: 84 lines
LIVING HISTORY
A Memoir
CHAIM HERZOG
Pantheon. 448 pp. $30.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, calls Chaim Herzog one of this century's greatest Irishmen. While this may seem a strange tribute for the recently retired two-term president of the nation of Israel, Herzog's memoir, Living History, shows that it is indeed appropriate.
Living History is an accounting of the 78-year-old Herzog's life to date. It is also a frank description of the late 20th century. Those who doubt the joke that ``An Irishman is someone who could tell you to go to hell in such a way that you would look forward to the trip,'' can find no better confirmation than this book: Herzog, in a quite pleasant manner, expresses his opinions on the behaviors of various leaders and nations.
He doesn't shy from dealing with any topic, from the Arabs and the Israelis to Great Britain and the United States, but neither is he confrontational. He has a disarming observational style. No one is totally good or bad; communication never hurts; and even someone who says he's your sworn enemy can eventually come around for his own reasons. Herzog is a principled pragmatist - with a smile.
His story begins in Dublin, where Herzog's family settled after moving from Lithuania, and his father was the Chief Rabbi. He describes Ireland's small but important Jewish community and his father's involvement with the leaders of the revolution. Later on in the book he jokes about posing as the Irish military attache in his Israeli Defense Force uniform at the request of his friend, the Irish ambassador.
He spends his boyhood in Ireland, but it is in Palestine and later in the British Army in World War II that he matures as a young man. The skills he acquires are put to good use in the fight for creation of the Israeli state in 1948 and in bringing it through its infancy.
A portion of the book deals with Herzog's years as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. His term was served at a time when Israel was under continual fire from the majority of the membership. Particularly frustrating was the passage of the U.N. resolution equating Zionism with racism. He felt it ironic to be condemned by totalitarian nations with abominable human rights records. He also developed close private ties with those very same diplomats who spoke their party lines on the floor of the General Assembly. These ties were to come in handy when economic issues and the end of the cold war brought meaningful advances in the Arab-Israeli peace process.
Herzog views the current state of politics and public discourse in Israel as a greater threat to its existence than any Arab efforts. He continually bemoans the electoral system that allows the formation of governments that are effectively controlled by small parties with extreme views. Herzog abhors the strength that the ultra-Orthodox and militant American-based movements have gained in his country. He believes that the practice of demonizing one's political opponents led directly to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, a heinous murder of one Jew by another.
While admonishing us not to forget the past, Herzog calls upon us not to prejudge others in the new era. Particularly interesting is his praise of many of the actions of modern-day Germany. He criticizes those in Israel, who are not among the Holocaust generation, who will take Germany's aid and financial backing for projects, but will not give the country credit for working hard to reconcile the evils of the past.
According to Herzog, the greatest danger facing the world today is the growth of fundamentalism. While he holds a particular dislike for the Islamic version, seeing it a security threat and impediment to rational behavior by mainstream Arab leadership, he also condemns the Jewish and Christian versions. Such behaviors, he believes, keep people from talking, the very thing that is essential for the eventual creation of peace and understanding.
The existence of the state of Israel is definitely a joy to Herzog's soul. Not a chapter goes by in the latter part of the book without Herzog inwardly rejoicing at the playing of Hatikvah - the Israeli national anthem - as he is received by the officialdom in one country after another. Throughout, he holds out Israel's potential to be a light of morality and reason to the world. If the nation creates a climate that produces more men like Herzog, it will definitely fulfill this vision. MEMO: Jeremiah Cronin is an environmental consultant, free-lance writer
and musician who lives in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Chaim Herzog was president of Israel from 1983 to 1993.