Israel Bids Farewell To Gillerman

On Thursday members of several countries as well as other important Jewish figures attended Dan Gillerman’s farewell party in his Manhattan home. Gillerman was the U.S Ambassador to Israel for 6 years, and presided over many important events, including the 2006 Lebanon War, the Hamas takeover of Gaza, the crisis in Iran, among other things.

Gillerman was well known for being an excellent speaker and a very humble and respected person; he was known for tying strong relationships with ambassadors to countries with no diplomatic relations with Israel.

Professor Gabriela Shalev will replace Gillerman as the UN Ambassador to Israel.

I will miss Gillerman, for he is a person who always knew how to argue effectively for Israel, whether it be in the UN or on television news channels such as CNN – Gillerman always brought Israel a little more respect. Below are several of his famous quotes during his tenure as Ambassador.

“Paris supported a condemnation of Israel for its military response to the Qassam fire,” Gillerman recalls. “I asked what would they do if rockets were fired from the other side of the border towards Lyons – would they respond with flowers? I accused France that by supporting the resolution it was in fact laying flowers on the graves of the next victims.
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“I was sitting in front of a CNN reporter who accused us of killing hundreds of Lebanese, including dozens of children, while we only lost 54 soldiers. I told her, ‘You really make me feel ashamed and apologize to you for not being able to provide you with more dramatic numbers.’ It was live, and she was pretty shocked.
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Former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton wrote in his book “Surrender is not an Option” that the Tanzanian envoy had whispered to him during one of the discussions that he couldn’t understand why the Arabs kept on asking for urgent meetings against Israel – and giving the stage to Gillerman.