Robert O. Link, Jr., chairman
of Cadwalader, Wickersham &
Taft, and Israeli Consulate
General Alon Pinkas
Photo
by Tim Boxer |
ISRAEL
ECONOMIC MISSION
Welcoming
Ambassador
Who Wasn’t Even There
By Nina and Tim Boxer
 HE
Israeli Ministry of Finance and Economic Mission invited a select
group of the Wall Street elite to the well-heeled law offices of
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft to welcome Israel’s new
representative to the United Nations.
Problem was, Ambassador Dan
Gillerman never showed up.
“I want to welcome the
new Israeli ambassador who isn’t here,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler
quipped.
Consul General Alon
Pinkas had a quick-witted explanation: “We are experimenting
with cost cutting. One way is to welcome people without them
actually being here.”
Robert Link,
chairman of the 210-year-old law firm, found Pinkas highly
amusing.
Pinkas added that as war
in Iraq is “inevitable,” the ambassador was called back to
brief Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom on developments at the
UN.
Abby Joseph Cohen (l-r), chair of
investment policy committee at
Goldman Sachs; Gregory A. Markel,
chair of Cadwalader litigation
department; Debra Brown Steinberg,
Cadwalader partner, and Ambassador
Alon Pinkas
Photo
by Shahar Azran |
And what is Israel’s
position on this war, which Pinkas said would come in 30 days?
Arye Mekel, Deputy
Permanent Representative of Israel to the UN, answered, “We have
39 reasons to support the war: Scud l, Scud 2, Scud 3, etc.”
Pinkas was quick to amend
that position.
“We have 39 reasons not
for a war but to see Saddam deposed,” he said. “We cannot wait
five or seven years till there is an Iraqi Thomas Jefferson.
Trust me, there are no Jeffersons or Hamiltons in the
neighborhood.” |
