In March 1966, President Asgeir Asgeirsson of Iceland visited Israel. This may not seem so remarkable today, but back in those early, pre-Six Day War years, any visit to little Israel by a foreign head of state was big news and Asgeirsson was, in fact, the first to address the Knesset.
But that’s not why this occasion remains in my memory. The reason I recall this minor diplomatic moment is because of what I witnessed as Asgeirsson was greeted upon his entry into Jerusalem. After serving up the traditional bread and salt, somebody – mayor Teddy Kollek or prime minister Levi Eshkol, I forget exactly who – pronounced that Israel was especially pleased to welcome the president of Iceland because the two countries had so much in common.
I blew my orange Tempo soda through my nose. What luftmensch, I marveled, was writing our leaders’ speeches? What in the world could such disparate states as Israel and Iceland have in common? That they both start with the letter I? Hoisted on his own petard, the greeter – Kollek, Eshkol, whoever – creatively soldiered on. Both countries had achieved independence in the 1940s. Both were democracies. Both had relatively small populations. Both featured languages rarely spoken outside their borders. Okay, right, but even so, this was quite a stretch. And over the decades this incident remained in my memory as sharply as the astringent, batteryacid taste of old Tempo orangeade – Iceland and Israel, Iceland and Jews.
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