{"id":34505,"date":"2020-03-27T03:53:53","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T10:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=34505"},"modified":"2020-03-26T09:30:09","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T16:30:09","slug":"writing-for-israel-at-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2020\/03\/27\/writing-for-israel-at-un\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing for Israel at UN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aviva Klompas recently published the book Speaking for Israel: A Speechwriter Battles Anti-Israel Opinions at the United Nations. (photo from Aviva Klompas)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Aviva Klompas came close to writing a declaration of war. In early 2013, after an Israeli post was fired upon by Syria \u2013 one of a number of attacks \u2013 Klompas was tasked with penning a condemnation that would be submitted to the United Nations.<\/p>\n

Still relatively new as director of speechwriting for Israel\u2019s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York City, she recalled the criticism she received: \u201cBe more direct. Be more assertive about things,\u201d she was told. \u201cI thought to myself, \u2018channel outrage.\u2019 I tried to do so. I wrote this very stern letter, and I took it to the ambassador to review.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klompas, who spoke with the Independent<\/em> recently, said she then learned the art of diplomacy, and how words might set off an international firestorm.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be clear,\u201d Ambassador Ron Prosor, then Israel\u2019s permanent representative to the UN, told her, \u201cyou don\u2019t have any authority to declare war.\u201d And it was off to a rewrite.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there weren\u2019t any other close calls, but there are many other fascinating stories \u2013 many of which Klompas has brought to light in Speaking for Israel: A Speechwriter Battles Anti-Israel Opinions at the United Nations<\/em> (Skyhorse, 2019). The book is a candid examination of how the Israeli delegation \u2013 and Israel as a whole \u2013 is perceived and treated in the international body.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>During Klompas\u2019s time at the UN, several major events occurred, including but not limited to the Iran deal, countless anti-Israel resolutions, Palestinians\u2019 bid to join the International Criminal Court, the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, and 50 days of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. She wrote the book, she said, to show the tireless work of those who advocate for the Jewish state and who rarely get their due.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt always feels like it is an uphill battle by the nature of the bias at the UN,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are people who show up every single day and never say, \u2018Why are we doing this? We should leave the UN.\u2019 I\u2019ve never had a single colleague make that suggestion. They came to work and did the job. I think, it\u2019s a little bit my story, but it\u2019s really our story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klompas was director of speechwriting from 2013 to 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very few people that make the headlines \u2013 the ambassador, maybe the deputy ambassador, maybe the foreign minister \u2013 but what about everyone else that is doing it day in and day out?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

About her work, the Toronto native said it advanced Israel\u2019s policies and informed public opinion. Being successful at it, she said, required overcoming some challenges. For one, there was a culture clash.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, Israelis are much more direct in their feedback, which is for better or for worse. At first, it is startling, but then you get to understand that it\u2019s not personal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Learning how to write in someone else\u2019s voice was difficult, too. Prosor has \u201ca very distinct style,\u201d she said, describing him as \u201cextremely articulate, funny, charming and intelligent. To be able to write for somebody like that takes time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, Prosor took a different approach to diplomacy, when \u201cso many speeches can be dry and not entirely lively,\u201d said Klompas. \u201cHe\u2019d be all too happy to break out into song in the middle of a speech, whether it be a song about African nations, which got him a standing ovation from some of the African nations in the General Assembly, [or] he would sing John Lennon\u2019s \u2018Imagine.\u2019 In a speech about women, he sang Aretha Franklin\u2019s \u2018Respect.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Klompas gave him the nickname \u201cthe Singing Diplomat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmbassador Prosor felt it was very important to be heard and, to be heard, you have to be different,\u201d she explained. \u201cHe knew he had to capture attention to get people to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the beginning, she would have to write up to 20 drafts of a speech before she got a sense of the ambassador\u2019s voice and style. Sometimes, there wasn\u2019t much time to tweak.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty stressful,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can get a phone call any time of day or night, weekend, and be told the Security Council is convening a special session, come down to the office, we have to get writing. You could have a couple of days\u2019 notice or a couple of hours\u2019 notice. And emergency sessions tend to get a lot of publicity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klompas, who is now associate vice-president of Israel and global Jewish citizenship at Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston, said there were poignant takeaways from her job as a speechwriter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be easily deterred by situations that seem unfair or unreasonable. You need a courage of conviction to deflect the constant attacks and brush aside the fact that systems and processes aren\u2019t as simple as one might hope,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d say that my experience gave me a greater sense of what happens behind the scenes in international diplomacy, and the ways in which Israel is working to find equality in the family of nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Gordon<\/strong> is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aviva Klompas recently published the book Speaking for Israel: A Speechwriter Battles Anti-Israel Opinions at the United Nations. (photo from Aviva Klompas) Aviva Klompas came close to writing a declaration of war. In early 2013, after an Israeli post was fired upon by Syria \u2013 one of a number of attacks \u2013 Klompas was tasked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[9787,6440,4330,3597,2827,2129,228],"class_list":["post-34505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-aviva-klompas","tag-diplomacy","tag-israel","tag-politics","tag-ron-prosor","tag-un","tag-united-nations"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}