Dr. Irving Moskowitz
State Department Arabists fondly recall the aftermath of the 1956 Arab-Israeli war, when President Dwight Eisenhower pressured Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to surrender the entire Sinai peninsula to Egypt. Part of Eisenhower's pressure consisted of threats to remove the tax-exempt status from donations made to Israel by Americans. For a small, impoverished country that had recently absorbed 700,00 immigrants, that was a serious threat. The Mideast policymakers in today's State Department see Eisenhower's policy as a model for present and future U.S. policy in the Middle East: pressure, pressure, and more pressure, always on Israel, never on the Arabs.
What is not well known, however, is that Eisenhower later expressed deep regret for his actions.
In a private conversation with Jewish establishment
leader Max Fisher in 1965, Eisenhower remarked, "You
know, Max, looking back at Suez, I regret what I did.
I never should have pressured Israel to evacuate
the Sinai."
Richard Nixon, whom Fisher knew well, also later told Fisher that Eisenhower "in the 1960s told me ---and I am sure he told others--that he thought the action that was taken [regarding the Sinai] was one he regretted. He thought it was a mistake."
Unfortunately, Eisenhower's regrets came too late. Once the Sinai was back in Egypt's hands, terrorist attacks from northern Sinai resumed, Egypt began blocking Israeli shipping from the Straits of Tiran, and another war followed. If Eisenhower had let Israel remain in the Sinai, much subsequent bloodshed might have been avoided.
Bill Clinton has two choices. He can repeat Eisenhower's mistake, by pressuring and weakening Israel--and then regret it years later, when it will be too late. Or he can reverse his disastrous Mideast policy, and uphold the American-Israeli alliance.
Which path will he choose?
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Outpost - 12 - May 1998