Kissinger was not Israel’s friend

By David Isaac, Shmuel Katz Blog

Since former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger served at the highest levels of government in the 1970s, he has portrayed himself as one with the Jewish community, accepting awards from the Anti-Defamation League and bestowing awards on behalf of Jewish organizations like the United Jewish Appeal. 

However, what has been coming out over the years in dribs and drabs paints a different picture, one of a man who, and this is putting it charitably, has a conflicted attitude about Israel and his fellow Jews.

Two years ago, declassified White House transcripts revealed former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger blaming Israel for exacerbating problems in the Middle East. His remarks no doubt shook those American Jews who admired Kissinger as a ‘native son’ who made good, rising to startling prominence in America’s halls of power.

Now, a new book, “Moynihan’s Moment: America’s Fight Against Zionism as Racism” (Oxford University Press, 2013) tarnishes
Kissinger’s star even further. What it shows about Kissinger is of a piece with the White House transcripts released two years ago. The author, Gil Troy, a professor of history at McGill University, does a superb job describing the 1975 conflict that swirled around the UN’s infamous Resolution 3379, which equated Zionism with racism.

Troy relates the dramatic story of how Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, battled the resolution’s adoption. What emerges is an unflattering portrait of Kissinger, Moynihan’s boss, who is shown in words and deeds to have undermined Moynihan’s efforts.

On April 12, 1975, months before the resolution was even proposed, Kissinger invited newly minted UN Ambassador Moynihan to his office and warned: “One major problem you will have is on Israel. We must dissociate ourselves a bit from Israel – not to destroy them but to prevent them from becoming a Sparta, with only military solutions to every problem.”

At the heart of the conflict between Moynihan and Kissinger, Troy explains, was a decades-old clash around American foreign policy between idealists and realists. Kissinger, a practitioner of realpolitik, saw morality and idealism as an unsuitable basis for foreign policy, whereas Moynihan believed in championing America’s values abroad. He viewed Resolution 3379 as an attack not just on Israel but on liberal democracy everywhere.

The difference in their worldviews, however, does not fully explain the hostility Kissinger manifested towards Israel. As Moynihan revved up his fight against Resolution 3379, Kissinger groused, “We are conducting foreign policy. This is not a synagogue.” Troy writes: “Kissinger and his aides mocked Moynihan’s Israel obsession. They wondered if he planned on converting.” “I will not put up with any more of Moynihan. I will not do it,” Kissinger said later. “He is going wild about the Israeli issues.”

Moynihan dealt with all kinds of pressure, Troy writes, but the pressure from Kissinger was the most difficult to bear. Hours before the resolution passed, Moynihan received instructions from Kissinger to “tone it down.” As Moynihan made his way to the General Assembly plenary, Kissinger demanded that Moynihan clear his statement with the State Department before making it to the UN. “You get him out and tell him I will not stand for that any more. Tell him these are direct instructions from me,” Kissinger said.

Moynihan defied Kissinger’s instructions to not criticize the UN directly. Moynihan warned of “the harm this act will have done the United Nations,” and said the United Nations was giving “symbolic amnesty – and more – to the murderers of the 6 million European Jews.” This remark “infuriated Kissinger,” Troy writes. Moynihan ended his speech with the line with which he began it: “The United States of America declares that it does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act.”

That the United States did not acquiesce was owed mainly to Moynihan, a Roman Catholic, and not to Kissinger, the German-born Jew.

The truth of the matter is, as important as this UN vote was, and Troy does a first-rate job explaining its repercussions, Kissinger’s actions during the ‘Zionism is Racism’ fight was merely a drop in the bucket compared to the damage he inflicted on Israel during the Yom Kippur War.

Shmuel Katz skewered Kissinger for his role in turning Israel’s military victory into bitter strategic defeat. In his 1974 pamphlet, “The Crisis of Israel and the West,” Katz writes:

When Israel had recovered from her initial, nearly disastrous setback, the resourcefulness, and courage and qualitative superiority of her soldiers so succeeded that – in view of all the responsible military analysts – she was on the brink of achieving the greatest victory in her history. …

But in two further decisive steps the U.S. Secretary of State dictated the conversion of Israel’s advantageous position into a posture of defeat. He insisted on the unconditional lifting of the siege of the Third Army. Brief Israeli resistance (by the Minister of Defense in a telephone conversation) was brusquely rejected. … By February 1974 Israel had by diplomatic negotiation lost the Yom Kippur War, and the aggressor had been awarded the beginnings of a retrospective victory in the Six Day War.

Katz had a remarkable personal encounter with Kissinger, who believed a totally unfounded rumor that Katz had taken out a contract on his life. Zionist writer William Mehlman relates:

“Shmuel, informed of what had transpired and anxious to put the rumor to rest, arranged a face-to-face meeting with Kissinger at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. ‘From the moment I entered his suite until I left three minutes later,’ Katz related to a small circle of friends in Tel Aviv, ‘he did not stop shouting at me. He never gave me a chance to refute the rumor. In fact I never got a chance to say a word. Finally, I just turned around and walked out.’”

It was absurd for Kissinger to fear Katz. While Shmuel may have been a member of the Irgun High Command, he was no hit-man. Kissinger is now 90. He has nothing more to fear in this world. We can only speculate what waits for him in the next.