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Book Review: The Prime Ministers
By Yehuda Avner
The Prime Ministers (Toby Press, March 2010) is one of the few firsthand accounts of Israel's prime ministers from the state's founding until the close of Menachem Begin’s career. Written in a clear and accessible fashion, Avner provides intimate portraits peppered with entertaining anecdotes that keep you engrossed throughout the 700-plus page political history.
Yehudah Avner served as advisor and English speechwriter to a plethora of Israeli prime ministers, including Rabin, Begin, Eshkol and Meir -- and it shows. The memoir begins with Avner's experience in Israel’s War of Independence, an account that's written in an unapologetic tone that expresses his deep devotion to the Jewish State. After providing his own background, Avner switches into a powerful narrative that centers around how various Israeli prime ministers made historic decisions, the effects of which are felt to this day.
But in addition to the historic anecdotes and Avner's penchant for the political bon mot, the book also offers access to some of the 20th century's most dynamic personalities -- among them Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Ronald Reagan, Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat, Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana and the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Avner also goes to length to provide unforgettable descriptions of behind-the-scenes sequences to the political rivalries, diplomatic blunders, and the many crises that took place in Israel for four decades from Levi Eshkol's premiership onward.
The most in-depth chapters in the book are those about Rabin and Begin. Here, the reader is treated to insights related to the beginnings of the peace process, as well as glimpse into the thinking of two of Israel's most legendary leaders. In his most candid moments Avner also offers up off-the-cuff dialogue between American diplomats (Kissinger, C. Weinberg, General Hague) and Israeli leaders, while in the book's most vivid paragraphs Avner hones in on the enormous diplomatic pressure Israel faces.
The Prime Ministers is a great insider's portrait of some of Israel’s most important leaders. Providing an intimate account of the inner workings of Israel’s diplomacy throughout the 20th century, Avner manages to give a sense of his broad experience with clarity, never shying away from providing the real emotions that characterized some rocky events and episodes in Israel's history. 
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