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Norman Webster on Chronicle of a War Foretold

Spector illuminates Mideast issues: Montreal native. Canada's
former ambassador to Israel knows a lot about how the world works

Montreal Gazette
Saturday, March 29, 2003


Norman Spector is one very interesting Canadian (yes, we do
have them). Born in Montreal, a McGill graduate, he has been a civil
servant in Ontario, deputy minister to B.C. Premier Bill (budget
slasher) Bennett, (BILL BENNETT) Ottawa's point man on the Meech
Lake file, chief of staff to Brian Mulroney, Canadian ambassador to
Israel (also responsible for relations with the Palestinian
Authority), president of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency,
publisher of the Jerusalem Post and, currently, a columnist and
commentator in both English and French, working out of the agreeable
seclusion of Victoria.

He's got wear on his shoes, grey in his beard and an awful lot of
knowledge about how the world really works. Recently, he's been
sniping at the CBC for what he feels is unbalanced coverage of the
Middle East.

Spector is well equipped to make the charge. During his years in
the Middle East, he got to see the principal actors up close, as the
prospects for peace held out by the Oslo accord faded into
bickering, obstruction, duplicity, violence and suicide bombing.

Chronicle of a War Foretold is, in fact, mostly about
Israeli-Palestinian matters, not the second Gulf War. But it's well
worth the read, because it deepens our understanding of an issue
that will still be around, as explosive as ever, after Saddam
Hussein and his ilk have been disposed of.

And, by the way, Spector agrees with the dumping of the Iraqi
tyrant. "Surely it makes sense for the States to take out a madman
like Saddam Hussein (his son and putative successor, Uday, is even
more demented) before he has the means to strike or threaten them,"
he writes.

"(Iraq's) link to September 11 - and to future terrorist attacks -
is a matter of dispute. But disposing of Saddam Hussein is a vital
part of preventing such attacks in future. A decisive victory will
resonate throughout the Mideast."

There are two elements to the book. The major one consists of 49
columns, most of them originally written for the Globe and Mail in
the last half dozen years. These are illuminated by a prologue,
epilogue and five short essays setting out major themes.

Spector identifies the main problem between Israelis and
Palestinians: most of the latter want the former to disappear from
the Middle East. The suicide bombers have a clear goal: a
Palestinian state instead of Israel, not beside it.

Spector, the first Jew ever appointed as Canada's man in Tel Aviv,
had some high times there. He found it was mostly true that being an
ambassador means you never have to touch another doorknob.

He is scathing about his former masters in government and the
"Arabists" in the Foreign Affairs Department. He raps the Liberals'
"soft bigotry" toward the United States (a neat phrase). A few of
his column headlines give the flavour:

Canada's Muddled Message Is a Joke; J'Accuse Foreign Minister Bill
Graham; Good Thing Ottawa's Mideast Words Don't Matter.

Spector says Canadians have been seen as "woolly-headed moralizers"
for some time. Shortly before Pierre Trudeau's funeral in 2000, the
ambassador to Canada of a close ally asked him "how it was that
someone who had got it so wrong on Hitler, Mao, Castro and the
Soviet Union could be elegized and eulogized as our national hero.
If absolute power corrupts absolutely, I replied, so does
powerlessness on the international stage."

A drawback of the book is that there aren't enough shots like that
one. The old columns are mainly political analyses; there are too
few glimpses of the personalities involved, too few personal
insights into Spector himself.

As I said, he's a very interesting guy, and when he lets himself
ramble a bit, we get some fascinating tidbits. For example, the fact
that he had a Palestinian girlfriend, a dangerous (for her)
relationship that had to be kept secret.

One day terrorists blew up a bus in Tel Aviv, killing many
Israelis. That night, he asked her how her family would be taking
the news. She said they would have smiles on their faces.

Spector meets Yasser Arafat, who serves him a chicken soup as tasty
as his grandmother's while Kalashnikov-toting guards look on. He
munches Lily Sharon's coffee cake while her bulky husband Ariel
settles with a thud into his rocking-chair.

These are good portraits, but fleeting. We read them and want more.
One day, Spector takes Alberta Premier Ralph Klein to lunch with
Arafat in Gaza - Ralph Klein! - but the account is all too brief. In
a future book, surely it will have a chapter all its own.

Norman Webster is a former editor-in-chief of The Gazette.

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