Negotiating for Peace in the Middle East (Routledge Revivals) by Ismail Fahmy

Author:Ismail Fahmy [Fahmy, Ismail]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Regional Studies, Political Science, Peace, International Relations, Diplomacy, Security (National & International)
ISBN: 9781135094157
Google: iZXcAAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-09-13T05:50:32+00:00

Henry Kissinger

The negotiating of the second Egyptian–Israeli disengagement was Henry Kissinger’s last major appearance on the Middle East scene. In the following months no new initiatives were taken because the American Presidential campaign was underway in earnest, and with Ford’s defeat Kissinger passed from the scene. I want to record here my final impressions on this man who played such an important role in the Middle East after the 1973 war. I have already talked about some aspects of his personality which became very evident in the course of our contacts: his tendency to manipulate people, his constant attempts to take advantage of Sadat’s trust and impulsiveness to extract major concessions from him, and his tendency to present Israeli papers as American proposals, only to disavow them quickly when we refused to accept them. Another side of Kissinger which was always evident was his overbearing vanity, and his determination to be at centre-stage. It was rather exhausting to see him preening himself in front of the cameras. However, although these weaknesses were annoying at times, they had no real political consequence.

Certainly, there was a personal, human side to Kissinger I liked and enjoyed. The more relaxed social occasions we shared with our wives were always a pleasure. And of course above all Kissinger is a highly intelligent and able person of tremendous stamina.

But the problem for us was that the ideas he conveyed to us on what to do in the Middle East were unacceptable. These ideas can be easily summarised. Kissinger had no policy of his own, no theory about how to proceed toward a settlement. For all the fanfare, Kissinger in the Middle East was basically Israel’s envoy. He never brought us a genuine American proposal. He never suggested a compromise solution to break an impasse. If we made new suggestions, he would seldom express his opinion, but would simply say that he would check with Israel.

During Nixon’s tenure as President, Kissinger’s bias was somewhat kept in check. Nixon was strong and decisive, and had no intention of allowing Israel to make policy for the United States. Unfortunately for us, Kissinger played his hand extremely well during the unfolding of the Watergate scandal, kept his distance from Nixon’s entourage – ‘that bunch of crooks’, as he called them once in my presence – and survived to be Ford’s Secretary of State. At this point, there was nobody to control him and he took the Israeli side more blatantly than ever. There is no better proof of this than his willingness to subject American policy in the Middle East to an Israeli veto and to commit the American tax-payers to pouring enormous sums in economic and military aid into Israel, merely to obtain Israeli surrender of a thin strip of Egyptian territory in the second disengagement. I am sure that this would never have happened if Nixon had still been President.

A final question needs to be raised about Kissinger. How was it possible for him to play such an

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.