Shlomo Argov
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Shlomo Argov (December 14, 1929 - February 23, 2003) was a prominent Israeli diplomat. He was the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom whose attempted assassination served as a cause célèbre, leading to the 1982 Lebanon War.
[edit] Life up to 1982
Argov was born in Jerusalem in 1929 into a family that had lived in the city for seven generations. He joined the Palmach as a teenager, and joined the Israeli Defense Force when it was formed in 1948. Argov was wounded in the Battle of Safed during the Israeli War of Independence, but continued in the military.
In 1950, he moved to Washington D.C. to study for a BA in foreign relations at Georgetown University, from which he graduated in 1952. He followed that up with an MA in international relations at the London School of Economics in 1955.
His diplomatic career began in 1959. Argov served in a variety of positions, in Ghana, Nigeria, Washington (under then-ambassador Yitzhak Rabin), and New York, in addition to those in Jerusalem.
His first senior diplomatic posting came in 1971, when Argov became Israel's Ambassador to Mexico, where he would remain until 1974. After a stint as Deputy Director General of Information at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs212.199.240.17 12:45, 29 March 2007 (UTC), Argov was appointed Ambassador to the Netherlands in 1977. He would serve in that role for two years, before being promoted to Ambassador to the United Kingdom, one of the highest roles in the Israeli foreign service, in 1979.
[edit] Attempted Assassination
On June 3, 1982, three men, Hussein Ghassan Said,Marwan al-Banna and Nawaf al-Rosan[1] approached Argov as he got into his car after a banquet at the Dorchester Hotel, in Park Lane, London. Said shot Argov in the head. Though not killed, he remained in a coma for three months. The events left him permanently paralysed and in need of constant medical assistance, which he received at the Hadassah Hospital, in Jerusalem.
The attempted assassins were members of Abu Nidal's organization. Al-Banna was Abu Nidal's cousin, Said a Jordanian and the third of Argov's would-be assassins, Al-Rosan, was a Baghdad intelligence colonel . The gunman, Said, was shot by the bodyguard and also sustained serious head injuries and, like Argov, survived.[2]. The two uninjured assassins fled the scene but were arrested shortly afterwards in a London flat,it appeared that they were next planning to kill Nabil Ramlawi, the PLO representative in London[3].
The attackers were convicted and the sentences ranged between 30 and 35 years. Subsequently two became mentally ill and were transferred to high secure hospitals in the UK[4]. There was speculation in Israel that the British security services were aware of the plot[5] and this was raised in the House of Lords by Lord Alton of Mossley Hill [6] Although the alleged MI5 agent was himself a convicted murderer [7]and would by the time the story broke in 1999 have spent many years in jail, giving him the opportunity to meet the three terrorists. In 2003 the British government confirmed that the three remained detained[8] but, given the sentences imposed, they may be eligible for release.
Israel stated that the attempt on Argov was the catalyst for the 1982 Lebanon War that started on June 6 and expelling the Palestinian Liberation Organization from Lebanon. Although there was no Abu Nidal presence in Southern Lebanon and that organisation was in conflict with the PLO. Nevertheless “Abu Nidal, Abu Shmidal, they're all the same,” said Rafael Eitan the Israeli Army chief[9].
In 2003, at the age of 73, Argov succumbed to the wounds inflicted by the would-be assassins.
