A long, long time ago, I saw a protest against Henry Kissinger. There was a sign that left an indelible impression on me. “In Egypt he is Kissinger, in Israel he is Killinger.”
Now I know why.
Gal Beckerman, a historian of the Soviet Jewry movement, told Tablet on Tuesday that this even led Kissinger to suppress a letter that might have helped salvage a deal with the Soviets to release Jews under the Jackson-Vanik stipulations.
Similar considerations led Kissinger to press Nixon during the 1973 Yom Kippur War to delay delivering arms to Israel by a few weeks. Their conversations at the time show Kissinger arguing that Anwar Sadat, Egypt’s president, needed an unadulterated victory to make peace concessions. Nixon argued — correctly, as it turned out — that Sadat was already able to claim a victory, and that it was more important to stanch an ally’s casualties in a war that would claim 3,000 Israeli lives.
Un-freaking-believable. Kissinger was willing to sacrifice Jewish lives to feed Anwar Sadat’s ego.
I would very much like to be able to throw him out of the tribe, but it looks like he’s already removed himself. And His Holiness feels he is utterly above apologies, and has nothing to apologize for. Eff you, Hank. Eff you.
Meryl, does he finally warrant the kapo label?
I remember doing a college paper on the German Jewish Reform religious movement many years ago, they were so very proud of their German heritage that they emulated Germans every way they could, even going to the ‘temple’ on Sundays, and using organ music in their services. They even looked down at the quaint orthodox Jews as being an anachronism from an older time, after all, they
were the 1920’s modern German Jew who fit in with the Germans as “equals,†and no longer required Jewish ideology to live their modern lives.
A very short time later they were fighting for survival from the barbaric regime they had previously espoused as the modern “enlightened†German country they tried to be a part of.
I wonder how much damage this German born kapo, and others have done, and continue to do. After all, their advice is sought after as knowing what is best for the Jews from one of them that has “seen the light!†I see it even now, as individuals who preface their comments with “I am of Jewish heritage†rail against Israel and provide a rationale for the hatred and deligitimization of Israel that is becoming an epidemic.
It’s worth remembering that whatever Nixon’s personal views on Jews, his policy with respect to Israel, especially during the War of Atonement, had its moments. I am not a liberal, which means I am more concerned with people’s actions and less with their souls.
There’s a quote where Kissinger remarks on what he describes as Israeli “ingratitude” in arms deals with the Americans, suggesting that the Israeli government would find fault with *any* deal, regardless of how “generous” (generous? one doesn’t pay for gifts!). Is he faulting Israel for ordinary bargaining tactics? A strange man (and not a particularly admirable one, given his support of General Pinochet, ad nauseam).