Lawrence
Eagleburger
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BNAI ZION
The Son Also Rises
In the White House
Story and Photo by Tim Boxer
 EORGE
W. BUSH is doing a much better job of backing Israel than his
father ever did. That’s the assessment from the elder Bush’s
secretary of state, Lawrence Eagleburger, when I asked
him to compare father and son.
Eagleburger, who served George Bush in
1993, added that the current president “is being blackmailed by
the Arab states” in return for their support in the war against
terrorism.
“If you’re going to be against terrorism,
you have to be supportive of Israel.”
Bnai Zion honored Eagleburger with its
America-Israel Friendship Award at its 94th anniversary
dinner in New York. W. James Schiller, the new president of
the American Zionist Movement, received the Dr. Harris J. Levine
Award.
“I don’t see why anyone should get an award
for doing what’s right,” Eagleburger said.
He told how he went to Geneva to push for
Israel’s Mogen Dovid Adom to be admitted into the International
Red Cross.
What he saw of “the European elite curled my
hair. Not only did they not want to upset the Arabs, but they showed
a strain of anti-Semitism.”
As chairman of the International Commission on
Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, he remarked how difficult it was to
discuss the matter.
Throughout his long diplomatic career he
negotiated with lots of “nasty people,” including Russians and
Cubans. “Nobody comes close to matching European insurance
companies.”
Dinner co-chairman Roman Kent agreed how
frustrating it was to deal with the insurance officials.
Kent, treasurer of the International Commission
on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, declared, “The Swiss, Germans,
Italians – they all have one thing in common: they don’t want to
pay their debts.”
Bnai Zion executive vice president Mel
Parness became a grandpa again this day. Daughter Caryn welcomed
Brady Jaxon in Minneapolis. Mel now has five grandchildren
– three in London, England, and two in Minneapolis. Mazel tov!
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