Editing Abba Eban (section)

==Politics==
[[File:Aankomst Israelische minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Abba Eban op Schiphol, rech, Bestanddeelnr 921-1960.jpg|thumb|left|Abba Eban at a press conference]]
Eban left the United States in 1959 and returned to Israel, where he was elected to the [[Knesset]] (the Israeli parliament) as a member of [[Mapai]].<ref name="EncycJudaica"/> He served under [[David Ben-Gurion]] as Minister of Education and Culture from 1960 to 1963, then as deputy to Prime Minister [[Levi Eshkol]] until 1966.<ref name="EncycJudaica"/><ref>Calder, John (17 November 2002). "[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/nov/18/guardianobituaries.israel Abba Eban] [obituary]. ''The Guardian''. Retrieved 3 January 2016.</ref> Through this period (1959–66), he also served as president of the [[Weizmann Institute of Science|Weizmann Institute]] in [[Rehovot]].<ref name="EncycJudaica"/>

From 1966 to 1974, Eban served as Israel's [[Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel|foreign minister]].<ref name="EncycJudaica"/> He defended the country's reputation after the [[Six-Day War]] by asserting, in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, that Israel acted in response to an imminent threat: "So on the fateful morning of 5 June, when Egyptian forces moved by air and land against Israel's western coast and southern territory, our country's choice was plain."<ref>Quoted in Norman G. Finkelstein (2003), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=vNb5VkyxDlYC&pg=PA123&lpg=PA123 Image and Reality of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict]''. 2nd ed. London; New York: Verso. p. 123.</ref> Nonetheless, he was a strong supporter of trading parts of the territories occupied in the war in exchange for peace. While serving as foreign minister, he remained in contact with Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. [[Avraham Harman]] during the war. Five days after the [[USS Liberty incident|USS ''Liberty'' incident]] took place, Harman cabled from [[Washington D.C.]] to Eban in [[Tel Aviv]] that one of their sources was reporting that the Americans had "clear proof that from a certain stage the pilot discovered the identity of the ship and continued the attack anyway." Three days later, Harman repeated the warning to Eban that the [[White House]] was "very angry" and "the reason for this is that the Americans probably have findings showing that our pilots indeed knew that the ship was American."<ref>{{cite book |last=Scott |first=James |title=The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tn0pk8pVE88C|publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2009 |page= |isbn=9781416554820}}</ref> Eban also played an important part in the shaping of [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 242|UN Security Council Resolution 242]] in 1967, as well as [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 338|Resolution 338]] in 1973. Among his other high level contacts, he was received by [[Pope Paul VI]] in 1969.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/PopeinIsrael/Israel-Vatican/Israel-Vatican_Diplomatic_Relations.htm|title=Israel-Vatican Diplomatic Relations}}</ref>

Eban was at times criticized for not voicing his opinions in Israel's internal debate. However, he was generally known to be on the "dovish" side of Israeli politics and was increasingly outspoken after leaving the cabinet. In 1977 and 1981, it was widely understood that [[Shimon Peres]] intended to name Eban Foreign Minister, had the Labor Party won those elections. Eban was offered the chance to serve as [[minister without portfolio]] in the 1984 national unity government, but chose to serve instead as chair of the Knesset's [[Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee]] from 1984 to 1988.

His comment that Arabs "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity" (i.e., for peace), made after the [[Geneva Conference (1973)|Geneva peace talks in December 1973]], is often quoted.<ref name=":1">{{cite news|title=Israel's diplomatic giant Eban dies| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2486473.stm|work=BBC News|date=18 November 2002|access-date=3 November 2007}}</ref>