A Lost Peace by Galen Jackson;
Author:Galen Jackson;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 3)
Why Did Ford Back Down?
Ultimately, the White House chose to back away from a confrontation with Israel and to pursue instead a second Egyptian-Israeli interim dealâwhich would come to be called Sinai IIâprimarily for domestic political reasons.189 As an unelected and relatively weak president, Ford knew that a battle at home over the Arab-Israeli issue would politically be very risky. After all, the administration was, as Kissinger put it, âfacing a massive onslaught by Israel.â190 âA settlement now,â he said in June 1976, âis impossible.â The reason, he strongly implied, was because it would require an enormous effort to âtak[e] on the lobby.â191
Ford and Kissinger also believed that the former would be able to regain some of the executive authority that the presidency had lost if he won the 1976 election. As Kissinger explained to Assad, neither Nixon nor Ford had been in a position to repeat what Eisenhower had done. âEisenhower,â he said, âwas a President with the biggest popular majority in 40 years. And letâs be frankâwe had one President who was totally under attack, and now a President who was not elected. Until he is elected, he canât speak with the same sweeping authority.â192
Trying to resolve the Palestinian issueâparticularly if doing so required working with the PLOâwould have been especially controversial. As the intense domestic reaction to Saundersâs Congressional testimony demonstrated, the matter remained an extremely sensitive one. As Scowcroft put it, the Israelis âwent into orbitâ over what Saunders had said, which was why Kissinger felt it necessary to try to distance both himself and the White House from it.193 The Americans, the secretary of state explained to Tunisiaâs prime minister, had âan extreme domestic problem when we deal with the Middle East.â âIf we get involved with the issue of the PLO at this stage,â he elaborated, âit would undermine our efforts, because the PLO is still considered here as a terrorist organization.â194 âIn the US,â he told Sadat, âthe Palestinians are regarded as murderers. We must start the process of rehabilitation of the Palestinians. If Israel can get the Arab-Israeli issue focussed [sic] on the problem of the Palestinians, it has succeeded.â195 âWe cannot do it,â he similarly told King Hussein. âIf the Greeks can cause so much trouble, think of what the Israeli lobby can do.â196 Given the sensitivity of the matter, he stressed, the Arabs simply had âto think in terms of what the political traffic will bear.â197
In other words, the administration did not want to deal with the issue prior to 1977. Recognition of the PLO, Kissinger maintained, was a âdelicateâ question, and âtiming was of the essence.â198 âAt a time when the power of the Executive Branch is as weak as it will ever be,â the secretary of state explained, âwe cannot afford to make official contact with the PLO.â199 His reasons for not talking with the organization, he said, were âsolely domestic.â200 âOur optimum course,â he told Ford in January 1976, âis to go to the PLO. Any other year I would do it.
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