Yehuda Avner was the quintessential diplomat. He represented the State of Israel to the world with conviction, skill and pride. He was a wise counsellor who advised prime ministers under conditions of shattering pressure during military and other crises of far-reaching, existential implication for the Jewish state. He was a fierce advocate for Israel and a powerful, impassioned defender of the justice of the cause of Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East. In addition, Avner was a superb writer. 

In 2010, he published the masterful work The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership. The book chronicled Avner’s first-hand experiences as an insider – as secretary, speechwriter and adviser –  in the offices of four different Israeli prime ministers. The book was hailed in Israel and beyond as a literary achievement of high drama and insight. It was so popular that it was transformed into a two-part documentary.

Avner died in March at the age of 86. His passing was felt in Israel as a deep wound to the body of Israeli diplomacy. His voice became silent. But its echoes still resonate.

Earlier this year, merely months before he died, Avner and Matt Rees, an award-winning crime novelist and experienced journalist covering Middle Eastern affairs for such publications as The Financial Times, Time and The Scotsman, collaborated in publishing the novel The Ambassador .

The Ambassador is boldly imagined, remarkably compelling and, ultimately, painful in the manner of a scar that yields both phantom and actual ache. It tells the harrowing, gritty, yet wistful story of how the ambassador from the State of Israel might have represented the Jewish state – in Adolf Hitler’s Germany!

In a short, powerful preface, Avner explained why he wrote the book.

“This novel is based on the premise that the 1937 British Royal Commission plan to partition Palestine had been put into practice – as it so nearly was. Israel would have come into existence before the Holocaust.

“Apart from that, this novel hews as closely to historical fact as possible. It is a fictional reminder of how the world failed back then. A reminder of what Israel changes for Jews around the world. And a reminder of something that simply must never be forgotten.”

Avner brings to the core depictions of the novel an entire lifetime of behind-the-scenes involvement in policy-making in Israel’s highest political offices as well as direct, first-hand experience in Israel’s diplomatic service. Rees brings his mastery of the crime mystery to the narration of a story involving a number of historical and fictional characters that is forcefully told with nerve-shattering tempo and surreal twists. The combination of the two is a realistic, deeply affecting nail-biter. Avner and Rees somberly depict the dark, horror-filled reality of Nazi oppression where “murder is simply law enforcement.” The ambassador must undertake assignments that are perilous and morally impossible.

The story, of course, is true to atmosphere and history but totally fictitious, a rueful flight from the ugly truth that was World War II. One of the novel’s most dramatic and brazenly imagined scenes is a brief, brusque meeting between Hitler and Israel’s prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. 

Hitler summons the Israeli prime minister to Berlin to deliver an ultimatum, to berate the man and, of course, to humiliate the leader of the sovereign Jewish state. But the Old Man of Israel refuses to be humiliated. Indeed, the exchange nearly brings the reader to the brink of cheering but for the sharp realization that this is make-believe and the overwhelming feeling of melancholy that rattles the reader with “what if…?” and “if only…”

“‘I want you to hear this directly from me,’ Hitler said. ‘If you join with France and Britain, there shall be no more emigration for the Jews of Germany. I shall not send Jewish manpower to you so that it might be used against me. I shall have to find some other solution, one with greater finality.’ He delivered each word with a crushing force.

“Hitler swept his hand toward the map table. ‘In addition I shall invade your country and the fate of Palestine’s Jews shall be the same as the Jews of Poland.’

“In all the years of negotiating with union leaders and kibbutz representatives back in Israel, Dan had never seen Ben-Gurion simply accept or reject an ultimatum. Even now, he played for time. ‘International justice demands that the peoples of occupied countries be treated with humanity…

“‘But don’t overlook this – throughout history, those who killed us were in their turn killed.’ The Old Man’s voice rose. This was what he wanted Hitler to remember. ‘Those who sought to destroy us were in their turn destroyed. That’s not an ultimatum. It’s a fact. When the thousand years of your Reich have passed, there will still be Jews. We shall not be destroyed.’”

The pages of The Ambassador are replete with such fictional encounters between historical individuals. 

In its obituary of Avner, the Times of Israel reported that he had propagated “Ten Commandments” for a Jew in relation to his or her responsibility toward the Jewish People:

1. When an enemy of our people says he seeks to destroy us, believe him.

2. Stand tall in the knowledge that every tyrant in history who has ever sought our destruction has himself been destroyed.

3. Protect Jewish dignity and honour at all cost. Life is holy, but there are times when one must risk life for the sake of life itself.4. Never raise a hand against a fellow Jew no matter the provocation.

5. Give the enemy no quarter in demolishing his malicious propaganda.

6. Whenever a threat against a fellow Jew looms, do all in your power to come to his aid, whatever the sacrifice.

7. Never pause to wonder what others will think or say.

8. Be forever loyal to the historic truth that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish People and Jerusalem its eternal capital.

9. Love peace, but love freedom more.

10. Build Jewish homes not by the accident of birth, but by the conviction of our eternal Torah.

The Ambassador was Avner’s last published work. It is a fiery attestation to the sanctity of those commandments. They were the credo that animated Avner’s life as a knowledgeable, caring, proud exemplar of the Jewish People. 

Given events unfolding today throughout the world, it is a credo we should all take to heart.