Israel launched a campaign against former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger after he blamed the Israelis for the breakdown of his mission to achieve an interim agreement with Egypt following the 1973 war, according to declassified British documents
An Israeli source close to Rabin told the ambassador that the Israeli prime minister believed that Kissinger “had tried to deliver the Israelis to Sadat” and he (Kissinger) “had become angry when he found that it would not work”. Rabin came to the conclusion that “he only wished he could talk directly to the Egyptians” without Kissinger’s go-between.
At a dinner with visiting US Congressmen, Shimon Peres, then Israel’s defense minister, accused Kissinger of “humiliating” him, complaining that he played role in delaying his important visit to the US. Peres asked the Congressmen to “say as much (about Kissinger claimed behaviour) when they returned to Washington”.
Another player was Yehoshua Rabinowitz, then Israeli minister of finance who was also informed by Washington that he must postpone his visit to discuss economic aid yet once more. Sources told the UK ambassador that Rabinowitz understood that he will not be received until the re-assessment of American Middle East policy was completed. Rabinowitz detected the “hand of Kissinger in the repeated delays of his mission”, the sources said.
The dispatches from the British embassy in Tell Aviv indicated that the Israelis were talking “as if they were convinced that Kissinger himself is the chief organiser of the present wave of American displeasure which has reached such heights”.
Senior official in Israeli Foreign Ministry Yeshayahu Anug strongly criticised Kissinger in a conversation with the UK ambassador. He said “for the first time we saw him (Kissinger) behaving like a Jew”. Anug argued that when the shuttle went wrong, Kissinger “behaved as if he had been personally betrayed by the Israelis and lost his cool completely”.
Where can we read the documents this author is referencing?
Kissinger was Jewish, so that was antisemitism. That’s how it works (according to Israel), any political statement or action made against anyone who is Jewish is antisemitism, right? :P
You’re trying to be a smartass, but Kissinger has some quotes that certainly imply it.
https://www.newsweek.com/henry-kissinger-say-i-would-antisemitic-jewish-something-wrong-1848303
I’d suggest reading the whole thing, it’s shockingly factual for a Newsweek article, though they do treat a politician’s words to another state as believable at face value while saying he was obviously joking about the other things.
I guess notorious war criminals and bad dudes can’t lie on the clock?
I tend to buy their interpretation overall, but it’s also worth noting that there’s a ton of further background context that makes it ultimately just as likely he was more honest about his “jokes” than it appears.
