Leon
Charney and his gorgeous wife Tzili. |
Bud
Beame (the late New York mayor’s son)
perusing Charney’s
book. |
Charney
autographs for legendary talk show
host Joe Franklin. |
TV
producer Bill Boggs with jewelry designer
Jane A. Gordon. |
Israeli
Knesset member Dr. Yuva Steinitz of
Likud (left) with Newsweek
on Air senior
editor David Alpern and TV producer
Norma
Davidoff. |
Eric M. Javits (left), new ambassador to the
Conference on Disarmament, Charney, and
New York State comptroller Carl McCall.
|
TV’s
The Charney Report
Now Between Covers
Story and Photos by Tim Boxer
 EON
CHARNEY, who’s been hosting a wonderful television program
every Sunday for a dozen years, probing the world’s top
personalities regarding the Middle East, has compiled a book of his
most scintillating interviews.
Many of his ardent New York fans packed the
second floor of the venerable 21 Club to hail the publication of The
Charney Report (Barricade, $24.95), a compilation of his most
critical interviews on the TV show of the same name.
“I wrote the book,” the self-made
millionaire said, “not because I need the royalties but because
Israeli-Palestinian relations is an extremely important issue.”
Quite a few of the guests agreed, snapping up
copies to be autographed.
The book bristles with scintillating inside
information on an enduring conflict between two peoples battling for
ownership of a piece of Mideast real estate.
In the book, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres offers a lesson in negotiating. He cautions that one must
never publicly reveal in advance one’s innermost views.
“I have learned from experience that
everything that becomes known is dead. When you and I are sitting
together negotiating, you have your proposals, I have mine.
There’s no chance that you would take my proposals or that I would
take yours.
“The art of negotiation is to create new
proposals. If you publish them ahead of time, you kill them.”
Of course, Charney already knew that.
You see, Charney was a critical factor in the
Camp David negotiations that led to peace between Egypt’s Anwar
Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin. Charney was a behind-the-scenes
advisor to President Jimmy Carter. Charney told the whole
fascinating story in his previous book, Special Counsel.
Charney, real estate mogul and diplomatic power
broker, was quite modest about reaping riches from his latest book
– even though sales are brisk.
“The advance covered one week of my
children’s kindergarten.”
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