Avineri, a native of Poland, is one of Israel’s premier political scientists as a Hebrew University professor and has written extensively on the history of political philosophy, especially Marx and Engels. His Herzl biography emphasizes the failures of Jewish emancipation in Austria-Hungary over the Dreyfus Affair in leading Herzl to Zionism. As the director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1975 to 1977, Avineri was open to negotiations with the PLO.
Photo: Shlomo Avineri and Reuven Rivlin and their wives (Mark Neyman, Israeli Government Press Office)