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With his past record on U.S.-Israel relations, why is former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger addressing Temple Emanu-El in New York City?
- 20 October 2021
- 11:02 pm
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- 20 October 2021
- 11:02 pm
US President Gerald Ford with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, on the grounds of the White House in August 1974. (Photo: Thomas J O’Halloran via Library of Congress, US. LC U9 29987 19)
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(JNS) One of the most prominent synagogues in America has decided that the appropriate speaker for its next public event is a retired U.S. government official who put brutal pressure on Israel, called American Jews “traitorous,” urged the president not to help Soviet Jewry and slandered former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
The Nov. 3 event at Temple Emanu-El in New York City will feature Dr. Henry Kissinger. When Kissinger, now 98, first became national security advisor and then secretary of state, I understand that some American Jews were thrilled at the idea that a Jew could reach those levels of government.
But that was nearly 50 years ago. By now, we have had ample time to review Kissinger’s record. And from a Jewish point of view, it is appalling.
On the eve of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Prime Minister Golda Meir became aware that multiple Arab nations were preparing to invade. According to the widely respected Israeli diplomat Yehuda Avner, in his acclaimed book, The Prime Ministers, U.S. officials (meaning Kissinger) “tied” Golda’s hands, telling her “in no uncertain terms not to fire the first shot.”
Abba Eban, who was then Israel’s foreign minister, confirmed in his autobiography that Chief of Staff David Elazar proposed a pre-emptive strike, but Meir and Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan rejected it because “the United States would regard this as provocative.” Kissinger even “warned” Golda “against full-scale mobilization” of Israel’s reserve forces, according to Avner. Kissinger did not want Israel to win a decisive victory because he thought that would make it hard to wring concessions out of the Israelis after the war.
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After the start of the war, Israel desperately requested an airlift of U.S. arms, but Kissinger stalled the request for an entire brutal week. His strategy was to orchestrate “a limited Egyptian victory,” David Makovsky wrote in The Jerusalem Post in 1993. The secretary of state feared an Israeli victory “would cause Israel to strengthen its resolve not to make any territorial concessions in Sinai.”
“Kissinger opposed giving [Israel] major support that could make its victory too one-sided,” Kissinger biographer Walter Isaacson confirms. Kissinger told Defense Secretary James Schlesinger that “the best result would be if Israel came out a little ahead but got bloodied in the process.”
A “little bloodied”? Israel suffered horrific losses amounting to 2,656 dead soldiers. Avner quotes from a conversation between Kissinger and President Richard Nixon on the ninth day of the war, regarding the request for weapons. “We’ve got to squeeze the Israelis when this is over and the Russians have to know it,” said Nixon. “We’ve got to squeeze them goddamn hard.”
Kissinger replied: “Well, we are going to squeeze them; we are going to start diplomacy in November after the Israeli elections.” And squeeze them he did, pressuring the Israelis to release the encircled Egyptian Third Army. In 1975, when the new prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, hesitated to give into Kissinger’s demands for more concessions, the secretary of state orchestrated what Avner calls a “brutal” message from President Gerald Ford. The message blamed Rabin for the absence of peace and announced a “reassessment” of America’s policy towards Israel. The “reassessment” consisted of a cut-off of all U.S. weapons shipments.
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Professor Gil Troy, in his book Moynihan’s Moment, reveals some of the disturbing language Kissinger used regarding Rabin during that period. Kissinger accused Rabin of “bringing the world to the edge of war” and charged that Rabin’s reluctance to make more concessions was “fomenting anti-Semitism.” Kissinger denounced Rabin and his aides as “fools,” “common thugs,” “a sick bunch” and “the world’s worst s***ts.”
But it was in 2010 that we learned just how low Kissinger could sink. That’s when a newly-released White House tape revealed Kissinger advising Nixon that the persecution of Soviet Jewry “is not an American concern.” Kissinger said: “The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy. And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern.”
Blasting American Jews for trying to link trade and human rights, he added: “I think that the Jewish community in this country on that issue is behaving unconscionably. It’s behaving traitorously.”
Henry Kissinger’s shameful record regarding Israel and Soviet Jewry should disqualify him from being given a platform by any Jewish institution.
Moshe Phillips is a commentator on Jewish affairs whose writings appear regularly in the American and Israeli press. He was a U.S. delegate to the 38th World Zionist Congress in 2020. His views are his own.
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Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.
We do news differently!
Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.
We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!
Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.
Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.
We thank you for your ongoing support.
Happy reading!
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