‘Israel’s Supporters Need To Go On The Attack’: An Interview With Ambassador Alan Baker
print
tell a friend
Ambassador Alan Baker
As a former Israeli ambassador to Canada and an expert in international law, Alan Baker has been involved in the negotiation and drafting of agreements and peace treaties with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinians.
Last year Baker was thrust into the spotlight when he was appointed by Prime Minister Netanyahu to the three-member committee chaired by former justice Edmund Levy to examine the legal aspects of land ownership in the West Bank. That produced the highly publicized Levy Report.
The Jewish Press: Your history is an interesting blend of diaspora and Israeli influences. How has that contributed to your political outlook?
Baker: I’m from a traditional Jewish family in England. As a student I was very much involved in Jewish student organizations and was elected chairman of the Organization of Jewish Students of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. That was the time that the New Left came up, during the Six-Day War. There were huge battles on campuses then, and I found myself taking part in debates on Israel’s right to exist, its right to defend itself, and the right of the Jewish community to shechitah, many of the issues that are still around.
Being very much involved in politics and feeling the anti-Semitism among the British people, I decided the place for Jews is in Israel and made aliyah when I was twenty-three. I married an Israeli, got a master’s degree in international law at Hebrew University and went to the army. During the Yom Kippur War I was stranded in an Israeli outpost on the Suez Canal and had to fight my way out. Three of our men were killed. It was a very difficult time. All these things mold your personality.
Has your legal background affected your decision-making regarding Israeli policies?
Strangely enough, I’m not involved in Israeli politics. I’ve always been a civil servant. I’ve worked for virtually every Israeli foreign minister since Moshe Dayan, and the prime ministers. As a legal adviser my job is to give advice, which can either be taken or not. But I never really came out with my own political position.
However, as an Israeli I have three sons who served in the army, and that influences your whole outlook and makes you very conscious of the fact that you must do everything and anything to try to achieve peace. I also served as a military prosecutor in the Gaza Strip at the time Ariel Sharon headed the Southern Command and there was a huge wave of terrorism. And I served as senior legal adviser on issues of international law in the Israeli army headquarters.
I saw the shallowness of politics, the way the Arabs manipulate the international community against Israel by lying and undermining a lot of the accepted norms. You have to find ways of responding to it, which is what I developed over thirty-odd years.
You’ve had ample opportunity to observe the evolution of world opinion toward Israel and the Jewish community at large. Why has it changed over the years?
What has happened over the years is that the Arabs have enhanced their influence in the UN and their capability of neutralizing it, much more so now than twenty years ago. I certainly feel the difference. When you walk along the corridors of the UN and your best friends walk past you and don’t look at you because they’re afraid the Arabs might see them talking to you, it’s not a pleasant feeling. I think it’s clear that there is an element of anti-Semitism and resentment in the international community to the achievements of Israel, to the fact that we are a superpower in the field of high technology. It’s much easier for me to deal with Arabs and Palestinians because they’re up front. They say what they think.
As one of three appointees to the Levy Committee, you concluded in the Levy Report that Israel’s presence in the West Bank is not occupation and that the Israeli settlements are legal under international law. Can you explain how you arrived at that conclusion?
This was nothing new. This has always been Israel’s position, from the day after the entry into the West Bank. Meir Shamgar, who became chief justice and then military advocate general, wrote in 1967-68 that this cannot be considered occupation because we haven’t occupied it from a sovereign country. Jordan was there illegally.
tell a friendAbout the Author:
You might also be interested in:
You must log in to post a comment.
No Responses to “‘Israel’s Supporters Need To Go On The Attack’: An Interview With Ambassador Alan Baker”
Loading ...
While I am an aggressive defender of Israel on most matters on left wing sites such as dailykos.com where I have at times even been threatened with a ban, I cannot endorse the Israeli government position on settlements. The entire rest of the world — starting with the United States in 1968 — does consider them to be violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Now, the Oslo Accords call for their status to be ultimately resolved through negotiations rather than by unilateral action. So while I certainly don't advocate another unilateral "disengagement" — and I also absolutely object to boycotts, divestment, or sanctions — Israel's supporters should understand the massive damage that this issue has caused to Israel's standing in the world.
I say this even as I regularly complain about the Palestinian Authority's stated intention to make the entirety of Judea and Samaria Judenrein (and in fact I was told that if I ever used that word again on dailykos I would be banned — I have to use synonyms). To be fair, Salam Fayyad has opposed this policy, but his political movement unfortunately has little support among Palestinians.
That being said, I live in a settlement.
"The UN has recently recognized the rights of indigenous people, who are thereby entitled to enjoy the rights and privileges of such people in their land." So our rights as Jews have to be recognized after all!
I think Jews should be able to live anywhere in the world! The problem is the Medinat Yisrael government's past policy of pushing its citizens to move to an area that isn't part of Medinat Yisrael. (The same problem would exist if it tried to move Arab citizens.)
Charlie, I wouldn't say the "entire world" considers settlements a violation of the 4th GC. And of course anyone with even half a brain realizes that using the 4th GC against the settlements is complete perversion of its intent, ie to prevent population transfers such what the Nazis did to the Jews.
The settlements are a political issue and as such you certainly can make the rest of your argument, but please don't give in to the "legal" idiocy.
http://www.jewishjournal.com/david_suissa/article/this_just_in_settlements_are_legal