One of the banes of a Fame and News Society like the one we’ve developed here on Earth is the fact that it can be hard for individuals to control the world’s perception of you. Governments and multinational corporations spend buku dollars doing just that– exerting their reality, manipulating the trut, and plain-old making up lies.
With all this work they’re doing, those of us without marketing budgets can get tossed in the shuffle. What they say about us can override everthing else, even if it’s just a small part of our contribution to the world. Here’s Shlomo Argov– graduate of Georgetown, ambassador for a young nation, statesman, and pretext.
Shlomo Argov, 73, Ex-Israeli Envoy, Dies
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM, Feb. 24 — Shlomo Argov, a former Israeli ambassador to Britain who was shot and paralyzed in an assassination attempt by Palestinian militants that set off Israel’s invasion of Lebanon more than 20 years ago, died here on Sunday. He was 73.
He had required constant medical care since suffering a head wound in the shooting attack in June 1982. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced Mr. Argov’s death at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.
Gunmen from the Abu Nidal guerrilla faction, which has ties to Libya, Syria and Iraq, shot Mr. Argov after a diplomatic meeting outside the Dorchester Hotel in London. Three Abu Nidal members were later convicted in the shooting.
The attack was Israel’s stated pretext for invading Lebanon four days later and laying siege to Beirut for three months until the Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, and his fighters were forced out of the country.
The invasion began an 18-year Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon, which ended with Israel’s withdrawal in May 2000.
Reuven Merhav, a former colleague, said Mr. Sharon, who was defense minister at the time, had actually planned the Lebanon invasion well before Mr. Argov was shot.
Mr. Merhav, referring to Mr. Sharon’s invasion strategy on Israel Radio on Sunday, said: “The war plan was ready. He made no secret of it. He had presented the plan to the Americans some months earlier.”
Mr. Argov, born in Jerusalem in December 1929, studied in Washington and London and joined Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1959. He served as ambassador to Mexico and the Netherlands before assuming his position as ambassador to Britain in 1979.
Mr. Argov is survived by two daughters, Yehudit and Edna, and a son, Gideon.