Voice of Israel.

EBAN, Abba.

Item Number: 30048

New York: Horizon Press, 1957.

First edition. Octavo, original half cloth, map endpapers. Inscribed by the author on the half title page, “To the Hon. Dean Acheson in friendship and respect Abba Eban.” Eban was Israel’s ambassador in Washington and representative at the United Nations from 1950 to 1959. He played a central role in the transformation of American–Israeli relations during a period of frequent discord over key strategic issues. Eban and Secretary of State Dean Acheson, signed The Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between the two governments. The treaty pledged not to discriminate against each others citizens or interests. Very good in a very good price-clipped dust jacket with some closed tear and wear. An excellent association copy.

Abba Eban was an Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister, Education Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and ambassador to the United States and to the United Nations. He was also Vice President of the United Nations General Assembly and President of the Weizmann Institute of Science. In 1947, he was appointed as a liaison officer to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, where he was successful in attaining approval for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab segments—Resolution 181. At this stage, he changed his name to the Hebrew word Abba (however it was seldom used informally), meaning "Father", as he could foresee himself as the father of the nation of Israel. Eban continued at the United Nations over the next decade. From 1950 to 1959 he also served as his country's ambassador to the United States. He was renowned for his oratorical skills. Henry Kissinger remarked: "I have never encountered anyone who matched his command of the English language. Sentences poured forth in mellifluous constructions complicated enough to test the listener’s intelligence and simultaneously leave him transfixed by the speaker's virtuosity." Eban's grasp of history and fluency in ten languages enhanced his speech-making in the United Nations. In 1952, he was elected Vice President of the UN General Assembly.