Chris Stevens was a noble, empathetic man, say the murdered envoy’s Israeli friends
The US ambassador to Libya, who had served in Jerusalem, fell in love with Middle East when serving with the Peace Corps in Morocco in the 1980s
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American Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, killed along with three other embassy staffers in Benghazi where protesters stormed the US Consulate on Tuesday, was a noble person, harboring deep empathy with both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict, said those who knew him during his stint as political section chief at the US Consulate in Jerusalem.
Stevens was killed when gunmen stormed the US Consulate in Benghazi in what officials now believe was a planned terror attack.
Ehud Yaari, Channel 2’s Arab affairs analyst, described the late envoy as a likable person and one of the most talented American diplomats of his generation.
Attorney Daniel Seidemann, an expert on Jerusalem, knew Stevens well and cultivated a friendship with him. “This was a man everyone loved, the intrigues and machinations of the world of diplomacy notwithstanding,” he told Ynet news.
Stevens, who was fluent in French and Arabic, reportedly “fell in love” with the Middle East when he taught English as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco in the 1980s. His other overseas assignments included Damascus, Cairo and Riyadh.
“If there is such a thing as a noble American, it was he. He was able to sit in a room with Israelis and Palestinians and to empathize with both sides,” Seidemann said. “He had an ability to see the bigger picture, and he was very open-minded. Israel was never just a job for him; he had a connection with it, he was committed to the Middle East.”
According to the US State Department, Stevens is the eighth US ambassador to be killed in the line of duty.
The Times of Israel Community.