It has become increasingly apparent that the Kissinger policies are plunging Israel down the drain to defeat and disaster.
When President Harry Truman granted immediate U.S. recognition to the new state of Israel in 1948, he thereby announced to the world that Israel was sheltered by the U.S. nuclear umbrella. The whole world understood that the United States possessed overwhelming military supremacy, that we would use it to protect our friends, and that Israel was one of those friends.
The meaning of the U.S. nuclear umbrella was most dramatically verbalized by President John Kennedy on his 1963 trip to Europe when he assured the West Germans, “We will risk our cities to defend yours.” Despite the oratorical overtones of that declaration, his words merely stated our long-established commitment to the NATO nations and other friends including Israel.
By October 1973, anyone who could read the SALT Agreements or count missiles knew that Israel was no longer protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella, and that the Soviet nuclear umbrella is now “operative.” The Arabs launched their Yom Kippur surprise attack against Israel, and the Soviets openly urged the Arabs to use their oil weapon against the West and thereby reap financial as well as military rewards.
The brilliant military strategy of the Israeli commanders in getting behind and cutting off the Egyptian armies temporarily upset the Soviet-Arab timetable. But Dr. Kissinger forced Israel to accept a truce and to release the trapped Egyptian armies.
The strategic balance has tilted so strongly in favor of the Soviets that they don’t even need to use their power directly. They can now compel Henry Kissinger to work behind the scenes to weaken Israel, while the Soviets send new weapons to the Arabs. Kissinger made Israel withdraw from the West and East banks the Suez Canal, and he ordered our Navy to clear the Canal (at a cost of some $20 million) so it can be used by Soviet and Egyptian warships.
Everyone who is concerned about the future of Israel should ask himself this question. What was the force that transformed the PLO’s Arafat from a socially-unacceptable terrorist into a “head of state” who was received at the United Nations with tumultuous applause of the majority of members? It was a clear demonstration of the usability of the Soviet nuclear umbrella. Most of the smaller nations of the world are basically fence-sitters who want to be with what they think is the winning side. They have sized up the strategic balance and concluded that the Soviet Union is the world’s paramount super-power and/the United States has opted out of the race.
It is time we face up to the facts of life that, while the Arabs are armed by the Soviets and sheltered by the Soviet nuclear umbrella, the Israelis are defended only by Kissinger’s illusions of detente. In the real world, unfortunately, it is power — not promises — that can enable a free nation to survive. Unless the United States rebuilds our lost strategic supremacy, Israel will b the first victim on the altar of Kissinger’s detente.
