A good American, but not a very good Jew

Without a doubt, Henry Kissinger - the American - was a very accomplished man.

Kissinger played a dominant role in shaping U.S. foreign policy from 1969 - 1977, serving as Secretary of State under Presidents' Nixon and Ford, and winning a Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.

Kissinger - the Jew - is a different story, altogether.

One of Kissinger's trademarks was his steadfast belief in realpolitik (politics based on strictly practical rather than idealistic notions, and practiced without any sentimental illusions), and it seems that this philosophy was not only limited to shaping his worldview (and the foreign policy of the US) vis' a vis' the nations of the world, but towards his very own - the Jewish People & State - as well.

Kissinger sought 'small friendly' Israel

The United States reached out to hostile Arabs three decades ago with an offer to work toward making Israel a "small friendly country" of no threat to its neighbors and with an assurance to Iraq that the U.S. had stopped backing Kurdish rebels in the north.

"We can't negotiate about the existence of Israel," then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told his Iraqi counterpart in a rare high-level meeting, "but we can reduce its size to historical proportions."

This is consistent with Kissinger's attitude towards the Jewish State leading into the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when he pressured Israel into not launching a pre-emptive strike against those preparing to attack her.

For six crucial days during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger reportedly delayed a much-needed airlift of weapons to Israel, even as Israelis were dying in their hundreds repelling the surprise attacks from Egypt and Syria. Sources other than Eban say that it was only when a desperate Israel showed a readiness to deploy nuclear weapons against its enemies that the airlift was allowed to go ahead. An unnamed source “close to former US Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger” confirmed an Israeli suspicion that the arms had been withheld to ensure Israel would be more pliable in America’s hands after the war. Kissinger's strategy was to "let Israel come out ahead, but bleed," the source said.

Israel, the Jewish State, paid with the lives of 3,000 of its soldiers.

Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dual loyalty was never a concern for Kissinger, a Jew serving as Secretary of State of the United States of America.

Good American. Poor Jew.

Israel
Jewish
Judaism
Zionism