Meir Rosenne

Meir Rosenne was born on February 19, 1931, in Iași, also rendered as Jassy, Romania.[1] The World Jewish Congress also identifies him as Meir Rosenhaupt.[2] A memorial account by former diplomat Zvi Mazel names his parents as Jacob and Minna Rosenhaupt and states that the family endured the wartime persecution of Romania's Jewish community and was required to wear the yellow star.[3] A later JNS account describes Rosenne as a survivor of the Iași pogrom, which began on June 28, 1941, when he was ten, and states that his father helped save more than 1,000 people.[4]

In 1944, the family departed Europe by ship from Constanța and reached Mandatory Palestine.[3] After arriving, Rosenne learned Hebrew, excelled academically, and fought in Israel's War of Independence; the JNS account states that he was seventeen when he fought.[3][4]

Rosenne pursued higher education in France. He earned a B.A. in international relations from the University of Paris, or Sorbonne, in 1953, followed by an LL.M. and a Ph.D. with honors in international law in 1957.[5] The memorial account also identifies studies at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris, commonly known as Sciences Po, as part of his academic formation.[3] He joined Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1953 while continuing his studies.[3]

Among Rosenne's earliest diplomatic assignments was work on behalf of Soviet Jewry. He operated from the World Jewish Congress offices in Paris with the permission of WJC president Nahum Goldmann.[2] In late 1959, he relocated to the offices of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency following difficulties with Armand Kaplan, secretary-general of the WJC's French Section.[2]

In early 1960, Rosenne prepared a brochure and booklet on Soviet Jewry in advance of Nikita Khrushchev's planned visit to Paris.[2] Working closely with Saul Friedlander, he proposed an international Paris conference of intellectuals, writers, artists, scientists, and religious leaders to appeal to the Soviet leadership over its treatment of Jews.[2] When an Israeli Foreign Ministry official instructed him in early September 1960 to halt preparations, Rosenne opposed the cancellation and traveled to Geneva to persuade Goldmann to let the event proceed.[2] The conference was held in Paris on September 15, 1960.[2]

Rosenne later served as Israel's consul in New York from 1961 to 1967.[6] In April 1962, he attended the first two of three meetings on the Palestinian refugee issue with Foreign Minister Golda Meir and a U.S. representative.[7] He also headed the International Relations Department of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission and served as its representative at the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission in Geneva from 1969 to 1971.[3] A JNS account additionally states that he assisted the Nativ operation from Paris by discreetly coordinating efforts to help Jews emigrate from the Soviet Union.[4]

Rosenne served as legal adviser to Israel's Foreign Ministry from June 1971 through September 1979.[1] His tenure coincided with some of the most demanding moments in Israeli diplomacy.

Following the October 1973 Yom Kippur War, he participated in ceasefire talks between Egypt and Israel at Kilometer 101 from Cairo, identified in a memorial account as the farthest point reached by the Israel Defense Forces in Egyptian territory. He subsequently participated in the Geneva Conference and contributed to the Egyptian-Israeli disengagement agreement.[3] He also participated in disengagement negotiations with Syria.[1]

The memorial account states that Rosenne was dispatched to Norway to provide the legal defense of the Mossad team involved in the July 1973 Lillehammer affair, in which an innocent Moroccan waiter was mistakenly killed.[3]

In a recorded 1977 conversation involving U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, Rosenne argued Israel's legal position on Palestinian representation at a proposed Geneva conference, stating: "The terms of reference of the Geneva Conference give us the right to say no to additional participation." U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance responded that the problem was practical rather than legal.[8]

In March 1979, Prime Minister Menachem Begin told the Knesset that he, Rosenne, and other Israeli officials had identified seven salient deviations from the Camp David agreement in a proposed joint letter. Begin said these concerned matters Israel had not agreed to accept or sign and that President Carter later accepted the Israeli position.[9]

Rosenne played a major role in the negotiations that produced the 1978 Camp David Accords and the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty. Biographical sources identify him as a drafter and one of the principal framers of the Camp David Accords.[5][10]

At Camp David in September 1978, he was listed as the Legal Adviser to the Foreign Ministry in the official Israeli delegation, which also included Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, Attorney General Aharon Barak, and Ambassador Simcha Dinitz.[11] U.S. diplomatic records document his active participation. During one session, Begin asked Rosenne to read the U.S. Sinai proposal aloud slowly before the delegation began a paragraph-by-paragraph discussion.[12]

At a September 14, 1978 meeting at the prime minister's cabin, alongside Begin, Barak, Dinitz, Avraham Tamir, and Eli Rubinstein, Rosenne met with U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and argued that the Aswan formula covered the Palestinian question "in all its aspects" rather than only its political dimension.[13]

During discussion of a draft peace treaty, Rosenne said that establishing diplomatic relations should be the first priority, cited the Japanese peace treaty as a precedent, and distinguished between immediately ending boycott practices and negotiating a trade agreement over a longer period.[14] In later treaty discussions, he read Israel's proposed language that the treaty would "prevail over" conflicting obligations, a formulation for which Begin sought U.S. support.[15]

Rosenne also participated in Israel-Syria and Israel-U.S. negotiations during his diplomatic career.[10]

Rosenne served as Israel's ambassador to France from 1979 to 1983.[10] He spoke fluent French, one of four languages in which he was described as having an impeccable command.[3]

He was subsequently appointed ambassador to the United States. The appointment was formally recorded on June 6, 1983, and he assumed the post on July 12, 1983.[16] U.S. State Department records list Moshe Arad as his successor, appointed on July 10, 1987.[16] Reports indicate that Defense Minister Moshe Arens initially opposed Rosenne's Washington appointment, but Prime Minister Begin persuaded him to withdraw his objections, and the appointment proceeded without a formal cabinet vote.[6]

Rosenne was also a member of Israel's delegation to the United Nations General Assembly and participated in the 1973 Geneva peace talks.[10] During his Washington tenure from 1983 to 1987, he dealt with the diplomatic and legal consequences of Israel's alleged involvement in the Iran-Contra affair and the 1985 arrest and espionage trial of Jonathan Pollard.[3]

After leaving Israel's diplomatic service in 1987, Rosenne became president of the Israel Bonds Association, also known as the Development Corporation of Israel.[3] He left the organization in 1994, joined the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, became a Fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and served as president of Israel Media Watch.[3]

In 2000, France awarded Rosenne the Légion d'Honneur for his efforts to promote relations between France and Israel.[3]

Rosenne later became a senior partner at the Israeli law firm Balter, Guth, Aloni & Co.[5][3] He also held academic positions as a senior lecturer in international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, and the University of Haifa.[10]

In 2006, he joined former Israeli diplomats and Holocaust survivors seeking to bring Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before the International Court of Justice over statements they regarded as incitement to genocide. Rosenne characterized Ahmadinejad's statements as "clearly a crime" and cited the 1948 UN Genocide Convention as the applicable legal framework.[17]

Meir Rosenne died accidentally on April 14, 2015, at the age of 84.[3] He was survived by his wife, Vera, their daughters Michal and Daphna, and their families.[3]

Rosenne's career extended from advocacy for Soviet Jewish emigration in the late 1950s through the landmark peace negotiations of the 1970s and Israel's strategic relationship with the United States in the 1980s. His doctorate in international law, fluency in Hebrew, French, English, and Romanian, and decades of negotiating experience gave him an unusual combination of legal and diplomatic expertise.[3] Biographical accounts remember him as a vigorous defender of Israel's positions and identify treaty drafting and international law as central features of his public career.[3][10]

Rosenne was an outspoken critic of what he described as a double standard in the international legal treatment of Israel. He argued: "There are two types of international law. One is applied to Israel, the other to all other states. This comes to the fore when one looks at the way Israel is treated in international institutions."[18]

Regarding the International Court of Justice's 2004 advisory opinion on Israel's security barrier, Rosenne argued that the ruling reflected an unequal application of international law. He contrasted the court's approach to Israel's self-defense claims with U.S. actions against al-Qaeda, contending that those actions would also be impermissible under the court's reasoning because al-Qaeda is not a state.[18]