Yesterday we reported on Sec’y of State Kissinger’s scabrous statement to Nixon in ’73 that if the Soviet Union set up gas chambers for Jews, it wasn’t an American concern. Marty Peretz rushes to Kissinger’s defense, and offers an insight into how power works. By the way, Peretz’s view of Kissinger as flattering Nixon’s anti-Semitism in order to convince him is part of the job description of a traditional court Jew. Herzl adopted the same strategy toward the czar, kaiser, and sultan, as he sought to win a Jewish claim to Palestine under the Ottomans. Finally, note Peretz’s statement about McGovern. This is exactly why Podhoretz Norman and Kristol Irving left the Democratic Party, and how the neocon freefloating political party began, over concerns for Israel’s security. Peretz:
I know something about Kissinger’s maneuvering for the Jewish state and for the Jewish people.
I and a few Harvard colleagues were in touch with him, actually met with him during the dread days of the Yom Kippur War when Israel’s very survival was at peril. (Henry Rosovsky, Samuel Huntington, Michael Walzer, Thomas Schelling and I comprised the group.) Dr. K. confided to us how difficult it was to persuade his bigoted boss that a great deal of American arms (and sufficient Lockheed C-130s “Hercules” aircraft to deliver them) were needed and needed instantly. There is no doubt in my mind that Kissinger rescued the third commonwealth with these munitions.
Imagine, by the way, if George McGovern had defeated Nixon in the 1972 election. McGovern’s enmity to Israel was and is well-documented. There would have been no military aid and no Israel.
So, if Kissinger needed to flatter Nixon in order to convince him, that flattery was also a blessing.
Yes, the Soviet government contemplated another genocide of the Jews and also lesser mortifications of them. But, believe me, no progressives believed this was possible.
