bout de papier, Vol. 30, No. 3 (2018), pp. 50–51
In assigning Michael to the most challenging Midale East posts — Jordan, Israel and Egyot — Canada knew it was placing its diplomacy in professional hands. And when the University of Windsor. with Canadian government funding (and a small grant from Princeton), challenged Michael and his team to take on the most sensitive of all Arab-Israeli issues, they knew the product would be sound, fair and rigorous.”
Michael Bell, who died August 25, was described by Globe and Mail correspondent Patrick Martin as “the face of Canadian diplomacy in the Middle East”.
Born, raised and educated in Windsor, where his family has roots going back to the late 1700s, Michael was eager to study international relations. He met and married Linda Lamoureux in 1968 after joining External Affairs and the couple’s. first foreign service exposure was postings to Jamaica and Trinidad where they concluded the life of “sun and sand” was not for them. Their daughter Caroline (“the pride of my life”), now a Justice department lawyer, was born in Kingston.
Hungry for an assignment where they could make a difference, Michael, encouraged by Linda, sought a posting to Tel Aviv in the mid-1970s. The couple were fascinated: it became their favourite posting, and the Middle Fast became the focus of Michael’s professional life. In the Yom Kippur war’s aftermath, Israel experienced a period of political ferment and the Bells were in Jerusalem when Egypt’s Anwar Sadat make his dramatic visit.
From Tel Aviv the Bells returned. to Ottawa where Michael was deputy director, Middle East Relations. In the right place at the right time, he was assigned to accompany and advise Robert Stanfield on a series of visits to Israel and the Arab world. They were to determine whether Prime Minister Joe Clark’s election promise to move the Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem should be implemented. Patrick Martin explains.
“The unlikely pair travelled the breadth of the Middle East, spoke to countless people, and wrote a definitive report that called on Canada to take a fair-minded approach to both Israelis and. Palestinians and to use Canada 5 good offices throughout the region to promote a broad peace initiative. In the interest of peace, the report concluded, it would be best not to move the Canadian Embassy from Tel Aviv.”
The report remains a foundational statement of Canada’s Middle East policy.
After two years in Rome he returned to Ottawa and his real love as Director, Middle Fast Relations. In June 1985, following a couple of close calls, Foreign Minister Joe Clark ordered the Embassy in Beirut closed. The Ambassador and his staff decamped to Amman where I was Counsellor, Immigration. Thousands of Canadian Lebanese were expecting relatives from Lebanon to visit that summer: their reaction was predictable. Beirut visa officer Scott Mullin and I worked up an “unpolitical” … message … recommending Canada immediately open a visa section in Damascus. Next day my phone rang: “This is Michael Bell of GMR. I am instructed to tell you your message was exceptionally helpful.” Click. Not a promising start to a long, productive friendship.
If the decision to close Beirut was fairly simple, a decision to open in Syria was not: Michael was involved in sounding out Israeli authorities and addressing concerns of our Jewish community. (See Bell and Molloy, “Crisis Decision Making in Canadian Foreign Policy: Diplomatic Representation. in the Levant,” International Journal, Vol 68, 2013)
In 1987 Michael was – appointed Ambassador to Jordan which gave him an opportunity to deepen his understanding of Arab perspectives and led to his appointment as Ambassador to Israel in 1990. When the first Gulf War broke out in 1991 Michael and his staff ended up in bomb shelters as 30 Scud missiles landed in Israel. The experience left him with a profound appreciation for the camaraderie and esprit. de corps of the Foreign Service.
Having. demonstrated – outstanding leadership under extreme pressure it came as a shock, when within a year, he was yanked out of Tel Aviv to make room for Prime Minister Mulroney’s chief of staff, Norman Spector. Michael and Linda appeared at our door the day they returned to Canada and our friendship began that day as we tried to make sense of something that made no sense.
On the positive side, we had both been assigned to the Palestinian Refugee Working Group (RWG) (led by Mark Perron), which Secretary of State Jim Baker had asked Canada to establish. It provided a diversion during that unhappy day.
Mulroney had agreed, reluctantly, that Canada would lead the RWG but pressure from the Jewish community caused him to reconsider. At Perron’s request Michael flew to Washington to consult Yossi Haddad, head of the Israeli foreign ministry. Haddad assured Michael that Israel’s agreement to the creation of the working group was conditional on Canada being the chair. The pressure ceased and Canada joined an elite group supporting US peacemaking efforts.
Subsequently, Michael became Director General for Central and Eastern Europe but seized an opportunity to return to the Middle East as Ambassador to Egypt in 1997. John Bell described Michael in Cairo.
“He was as good as an Ambassador gets because he always had an eye out for the big picture, relating matters back to the Canadian interest, while managing the embassy in an integrated fashion. He was demanding and thorough, which wasn’t always easy, but a necessary learning experience for a junior political officer. He also had a realistic appreciation for Egypt and the Middle East.”
Cairo offered Michael an opportunity to expand his network of friends and contacts (and his reputation) in the Arab world and he, with Linda’s enthusiastic participation, took full advantage.
In. 1999, Michael returned as Canada’s ambassador to Tel Aviv. His assignment coincided with the violent second intifada and the Second Gulf War. Our paths crossed frequently as my last year as HOM in Amman and three years as peace process coordinator overlapped. During this. time I came to appreciate Michael the man: connoisseur, collector, cinema enthusiast, political. junkie. Ambassador. (US) Dan Kurtzer served in Cairo and Tel Aviv the same time as Michael and worked with him on the RWG and Jerusalem Old City Initiative (JOCD:
“To my wife Sheila and me, Michael and Linda Bell were so much more than diplomatic friends. We all needed a shoulder to lean on when things got tough, or a sympathetic ear to listen to the gripes we could not share anywhere else. Michael and Linda were those people for us. From the formal bilateral meetings at which serious business was discussed to the foursome that shared hot dogs and a movie on Canada national day, Michael and Linda were just really good friends. As is true for many, and perhaps more. than most, I miss Michael a great deal.”
On my last visit to.Tel Aviv, we agreed that once we retired we would tackle some part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict no sane Canadian government could allow its diplomats to touch. We recruited John Bell and thus was born the JOCI, Michael later described as his most important work.
JOCI found a home at the University of Windsor with political scientist Tom Najem as. project manager. The Initiative was based on the conviction that the emotional needs of the Old City’s occupants were as important as title and deed and that without an equitable arrangement for the governance of the Old City and its holy sites, there can be no peace. In a decade long process a stellar team of Israeli, Palestinian and international
GEORGES FLANAGAN experts was assembled to help us design the model of a special regime to provide security and equitable governance for the Old City. Michael led the work on security assisted by John de Chastelain, Roy Berlingquet and Ambassador (US) Art Hughes while I led the governance team. When the work was done British publisher Routledge asked to look at our papers: we hoped for a book; Routledge decided there were three.* Michael lived long enough to see the first volume, Track Two Diplomacy and Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Old City Initiative.
In addition to JOCI, during his retirement Michael coordinated donor efforts in Iraq, wrote 100 op-eds for the Globe and Mail Michael’s. thorough. and passionate engagement with the Middle East made him the premiere reference to it in our country. Those interested in the Middle East; its culture and future can find in his career a model. for how to work constructively as Canadians in a difficult, fascinating part of the world.
MIKE MOLLOY worked with Michael Bell on the Refugee Working Group and JOCI. A former Ambassador to Jordan, and Director General, Refugee Affairs, he co-edited the three
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 30, No. 3 (2018), pp. 50–51. Read the rest of this issue →
