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 āhad tried to deliver the Israelis to Sadatā and he (Kissinger) āhad become angry when he found that it would not workā. Rabin came to the conclusion that āhe only wished he could talk directly to the Egyptiansā without Kissingerās go-between.
At a dinner with visiting US Congressmen, Shimon Peres, then Israelās defense minister, accused Kissinger of āhumiliatingā him, complaining that he played role in delaying his important visit to the US. Peres asked the Congressmen to āsay as much (about Kissinger claimed behaviour) when they returned to Washingtonā.
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 āhand of Kissinger in the repeated delays of his missionā, the sources said.
The dispatches from the British embassy in Tell Aviv indicated that the Israelis were talking āas if they were convinced that Kissinger himself is the chief organiser of the present wave of American displeasure which has reached such heightsā.
Senior official in Israeli Foreign Ministry Yeshayahu Anug strongly criticised Kissinger in a conversation with the UK ambassador. He said āfor the first time we saw him (Kissinger) behaving like a Jewā. Anug argued that when the shuttle went wrong, Kissinger ābehaved as if he had been personally betrayed by the Israelis and lost his cool completelyā.
Youāre 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
Iād suggest reading the whole thing, itās shockingly factual for a Newsweek article, though they do treat a politicianās 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 canāt lie on the clock?
I tend to buy their interpretation overall, but itās also worth noting that thereās a ton of further background context that makes it ultimately just as likely he was more honest about his ājokesā than it appears.
Thatās interesting. Like it seems that, like most people, he had a complex relationship with his heritage and the way it manifested in the world. But whatās especially telling is despite him making the antisemitic comment about breaking of the 1973 ceasefire it turns out he gave them the green light to break it, so that makes it seem like that comment mightāve just been an act for the benefit of others. Saying the equivalent of āOh lawd, those silly Israelis are breaking ceasefires againā, etc, to conceal or misdirect from his involvement in giving them the go-ahead.
But also this isnāt particularly relevant to the joke I was making. Which is that Israel calls anything said or done against Jewish people for any reason antisemitism, so I was turning that back on Israel for doing/saying things against a Jew. Itās funny regardless of Kissingerās relationship with his ethnicity/religion or Israel because itās about Israel, not Kissinger.