Abba Eban

Politician

1915-02-02 – 2002-11-17

Abba Solomon Meir Eban was a South African-born Israeli diplomat and politician, and a scholar of the Arabic and Hebrew languages.

Books by Abba Eban

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A statesman who keeps his ear permanently glued to the ground will have neither elegance of posture nor flexibility of movement.
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One of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all.
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It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.
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Lest Arab governments be tempted out of sheer routine to rush into impulsive rejection, let me suggest that tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.
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I think that this is the first war in history that on the morrow the victors sued for peace and the vanquished called for unconditional surrender.
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If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.
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A nation writes its history in the image of its ideal.
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History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
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Men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all the other alternatives.
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Salvation, the prophets tell us, is preconditioned by repentance. The redeeming act of God waits upon man's initiative.
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It [idolatry] nourishes mans ambition to domineer over his fellow man. Idolatry, therefore, is the source of all social and moral evil in the world.
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