CLOSE-UP

Ranan Lurie

44'

enough for me to draw from Lurie interviewing Mr. Sadat of Egypt in
it;' he said.
1977 for public television's MacNeil/Lehrer
In a room next to his News Hour. During the talk, Mr. Sadat call-
more formal office, two ed Libya's Moammar Qadaffi "a mental
interns work on their case . . . the joke of the whole Arab world."
own art and fill in fine
Mr. Lurie had prepared extensively for the
lines of shading in Mr. interview. So had Mr. Sadat.
Lurie's. Sometimes
"The first thing Sadat told me was, 'Son
these college grad- of gun. How could you do that to my of-
uates do research ficers?' " a reference to the 1954 story about
and act as a sound- the Egyptian flagship. "Then he patted me
ing board.
on the back to say 'well done. Well done: "
Mr. Lurie, who was
Mr. Lurie is not shy about giving his opin-
born in Port Said, -ions of world leaders.
Egypt, and lived in Is-
Mikhail Gorbachev "is probably the most
rael until he was 35, said important man of the century because he
he's been drawing for as long was the first [Soviet leader] who identified
as he can remember.
the catastrophe and started the slaughter"
"When I was a kindergartner of communism, Mr. Lurie said.
and saw the other children
Boris Yelstin, the Russian president, is "a
couldn't draw, I thought they person of very strong principles, backing
were undeveloped," recalled them with personal physical courage, but
Mr. Lurie, a father of three with the very dangerous tendencies of a real
adult children and one teen- dictator."
ager.
President George Bush is "prudent, bril-
As he started getting his work liant, cautious; definitely a person of princi-
published, he was also writing ple when you push him enough?'
and editing at Israel's Ma aria and Hador
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel
daily newspapers and other publications. "is a very stubborn person. He's like a
But in 1954, after receiving the award for maestro who plays violin, but has one note
his Egyptian naval adventure, he decided to on his music — never give up the territories."
concentrate on his art. He became staff car-
Housing Minister Ariel Sharon "is prob- Interviewing the late
toonist for the Yediot Achronot and stayed ably the most brilliant person in the Israeli Egyptian President
there until 1966.
cabinet. But he may be making some of the Anwar Sadat.
In late May of the next year, Mr. Lurie
was in Montreal with a one-man portrait ex-
hibit at Expo 67's Israeli pavilion. As war
approached, Mr. Lurie, a reserve major in the
Israeli infantry, flew home.
His trip caught the attention of Life
magazine, which published his first-person
account. The next year, he moved to the U.S.
to be the magazine's political cartoonist,
staying five years.
Later, he did tours on the staffs of The
Times of London, Die Well Asahi Shimbun
and US. News and World Report, all the
while interviewing world leaders.

Talking With Sadat

During our interview, Mr. Lurie played a
videotape of news reports on his explosive
October 1976 interview with Gen. George
Brown, then chairman of the U.S. Joint
Chiefs of Staff, who called Israel more a
burden than an asset to the US. Gen. Brown
was shown at a press conference trying to
explain away his comment.
"He's lying here," Mr. Lurie said, pointing
at the screen.
Minutes later, a videotape showed Mr.

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1991