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The stepson of a Holocaust survivor, who is called to be the next US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after being elected by President-elect Joe Biden, is a staunch internationalist and pro-European who advocates interventionism and loves France, a country with who has close personal ties.
His childhood friend Rob Malley, president of the International Crisis Group, who went to school with Blinken in France, describes him, according to the media, as “an American in Paris, with a sense of what it means to be an American with culture and values of the United States, at a time when there was a lot of anti-Americanism going around, but it also saw what it was like to be a Frenchman in America. “
The 58-year-old diplomat, born in New York, moved to the French capital as a child when his parents divorced and his mother, Judith, married lawyer Samuel Pisar, a Holocaust survivor.
Heir to the Holocaust
Indeed, in his presentation on Tuesday, Blinken recalled his stepfather, “who was one of 900 school children in Bialystok, Poland, but the only Holocaust survivor after four years in concentration camps.”
“At the end of the war he escaped a death march through the forests of Bavaria (Germany). From his hiding place he heard a deep crash, it was a tank, but instead of an Iron Cross (of the German troops) he saw a white five-pointed star painted on one side ”, he said in an excited speech.
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“He ran to the tub,” he continued, “the lid was opened and an African-American soldier looked down and (his stepfather) knelt down. And he said the only three words he knew in English that his mother had taught him before the war: “God bless America”. And this is who we are ”.
Heir to this family legacy, Blinken is a staunch defender of Israel and human rights against the practices of governments like Saudi Arabia or Egypt.
In a speech before the Democratic Majority for Israel group, he argued last May that the two-state solution was “the only way to defend Israel’s future as a democratic and Jewish state.”
And despite rejecting Israel’s unilateral annexation of the territory, he warned Palestinians that they should recognize the Israeli state as Jewish and asked them to stop the “incitement”.
This Harvard University and Columbia Law School graduate began his diplomatic career during the Bill Clinton administration (1993–2001) and most recently was Undersecretary of State and Deputy National Security Advisor in the Barack Obama administration (2009- 2017) before moving to the private sector.
He is currently one of the founding partners of the consulting firm WestExec Advisors.
Diplomat Jim Steinberg, who was also Undersecretary of State under the Obama administration and who has worked with Blinken for decades, described him as the person with the “experience and knowledge” needed for the job, in statements to the radio station. . Public NPR.
“Has the character. He’s a great partner and works well with others and, more importantly, he trusts the President of the United States, ”Steinberg said.
Clinton, Obama and Biden
Blinken has also worked closely with Obama’s former Senator and Vice President Biden for nearly two decades, serving as his principal assistant on the Upper House Foreign Relations Committee and national security adviser to his Vice Presidency.
The newspaper The New York Times He pointed out that, as Biden’s advisor to the Vice Presidency, Blinken helped develop the American response during the so-called Arab Spring, with mixed results in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Libya.
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His choice as future secretary of state, if finally confirmed by the Senate, reflects a return to traditional foreign policy, which will support lifelong alliances.
Indeed, the New York Times indicated that among its priorities will be restoring confidence in the United States, as a global ally willing to return to the international treaties and institutions that Trump withdrew from, such as the nuclear deal with Iran, the Paris climate or the World Health Organization (WHO).
Similarly, this centrist believes in welcoming refugees to the United States and a few months ago he said that if Biden came to power, he would try to increase aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to address the root causes they generate. immigration. illegal in the north.
Europe, the great ally
As for Europe, Blinken believes the US should recognize the old continent as an ally “to turn to as a first, not a last, resource when addressing challenges,” he said at a July conference in downtown Studi. of the Hudson Institute.
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The diplomat will also look for a way to change the dynamics in the competition with China without abandoning that fight, by promoting multilateral initiatives in the field of trade, investments in technology and human rights instead of pressuring nations to choose between the two countries, according to The New York Times.
Beyond his diplomatic career, Bliken plays guitar in his spare time and is a rock lover. He has a band called Ablinken with two original songs on Spotify, “Lip Service” and “Patience”.
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