Henry Kissinger and Golda Meir. (Photo: Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
It seems the Israel lobby has not always been held in such high esteem within the White House. The AP reports on newly released documents regarding lobbying in the early 1970s on the plight of Jews in the Soviet Union:
Among the appeals flooding the White House was one from the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir to President Richard Nixon in August 1972 asking him to protest to the Kremlin its levying of fees for exit permits.
The White House, defending its strategy of quiet diplomacy, sought to assure the American Jews that Nixon was very concerned about the plight of Soviet Jews, had taken up the issue with Soviet leaders directly and remained convinced that quiet diplomacy was the best approach, the documents related.
A White House official, Leonard Garment, saying he was flooded with letters and phone calls with Jewish appeals, asked Kissinger for help and guidance. The late Alexander Haig, Nixon’s national security adviser, sent him Mrs. Meir’s letter and said “We will have to consider the best means by which to proceed.”
According to transcripts released by the State Department, Kissinger, who was Haig’s deputy, said to Garment: “Is there a more self-serving group of people than the Jewish community?” Kissinger is Jewish.
Garment, also Jewish, replied: “None in the world.”
At this point, Kissinger was quoted as saying “What the hell do they think they are accomplishing?”
Kissinger went on: “You can’t even tell bastards anything in confidence because they’ll leak it.”
But Kissinger said he would take up the issue with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and also meet again with Jewish leaders. “They ought to remember what this administration has done,” he said.
Fascinating
Here is a story of Jewish “Indiana Jones” a.k.a Menachem Youlus ,who claimed that he went all over the world, bravely fighting dragons and witches, (lost two teeth in a fight), in order to rescue the copies of Torah.
It turned out that he had a very rich imagination, but was sneaky as an old fox and managed to make a plentiful money on those too-good-to-be-true stories.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/25/jewish-indiana-jones-accused-stories
This makes me very proud to be part of the Jewish community. Should the community have trusted Nixon to do what is best or applied pressure so that more Soviet Jews could leave? By alluding to “leaks”, it seems Kissinger was ashamed of the reasons for not pressuring the Soviets more, and did not want them to be known. All the more reason to pressure Nixon.
There was a famous Jewish dissident called Anatoly Sharansky. He was treated so cruelly by the soviets. Those evil Soviets. He became a cause celebre of human rights activists. when he was released the world rejoiced.
He went to Israel. And as minister for Jerusalem he evicted Palestinians from their homes. He always voted for the settlers. Those evil Soviets.
To qoute Chaos, “slowly backing away from this post…”