JUNE, 1980

ADL BULLETIN

Published by the **Anti-Defamation League** of B'nai B'rith

Whistestone Photo

HENRY KISSINGER HONORED — The former Secretary of State was awarded the Anti-Defamation League's 1980 America's Democratic Legacy Award at a dinner at the Plaza Hotel, May 7. Pictured, left to right, are Maxwell E. Greenberg, ADL national chairman; Dr. Kissinger; Edgar M. Bronfman, who made the presentation; and Irving D. Lipkowitz, guest of honor.

# The Middle East

by Henry A. Kissinger

The Middle East issue seems to me to have three aspects: the East-West relationship; the relationship between moderates and radicals in the area; and the Arab-Israeli problem. Those three issues are partly overlapping but partly autonomous, and I do not believe one can solve the whole complex of issues by addressing one particular narrow part of it. And therefore, while I strongly favor the negotiations on the West Bank that are now going on, and strongly support the Camp David Agreement, I do not believe the outcome of those

negotiations will be the key to all the other issues in the Middle East.

Let me first begin with the East-West relationship. A strong America is essential for any effective foreign policy; without such strength there can be no security for anybody, and without our dedication there can be no progress. And it is a source of profound concern that the relative balance of power is not nearly so favorable to the United States as it has been. Indeed, if current trends continue, we will be in an increasingly difficult position. Through most of the post-war period, the United States could substitute or balance Soviet con-

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COMMENT:
Lobbying for Democracy

Summertime and the living may or may not be easy. A good time for heshbon hanefesh, a reckoning as to where we stand with ADL's concerns.
Let me begin by stating the unlikely. Anti-Semitism, as we have customarily measured it, has been declining.

Discrimination in employment? It's there, of course it's there, but is any faith group in America markedly better off? Discrimination in housing? True, Tevya may not have had much to pack, but the time in which we moved from the shtetl to suburbia has to have broken all acculturation records.

And yet, and yet ... We still look over our shoulders; we are, for all our achievements, still on guard. We showed it in our voting patterns in the recent New York Democratic primaries. The vote was more than a message to the President, it was an unplanned, unwitting, self-administered Rorschach test, declaring our uneasiness.

Our apprehension is further evident in ADL's law docket these past several years, as full as ever with Supreme Court cases: DeFunis, Bakke, Weber, Fullilove. At stake? The very victories that yesteryear we won over discrimination.

Our Moriarity is not anti-Semitism. Conflicting group interests are our nemesis. Today's quota system is not anti-Semitic. Its fallout, however, is both anti-Jewish and anti-democratic in impact — and that makes it doubly ominous because the democratic system has been Jewry's surest ally.

There is nothing anti-Semitic about oil: oil is not an inflammatory passion play; oil does not revise Holocaust history; oil does not discriminate. But oil is megatons more potently dangerous to us than the anti-Semitic Ku Klux Klan.

Listen to the sounds of oil:

Lord Carrington, Britain's Foreign Secretary, a few weeks ago: "The P.L.O. is not a terrorist organization as such."

The French Head of State embraces and all but publicly consummates an affair with the P.L.O. Fraternal endearments? No, oil's.

Italy, West Germany, the Common Market — anti-Semitism not even a relevancy — snuggle closer to and prepare to recognize the P.L.O.

The international scene has changed for Jews. And ADL is changing too.

Earlier this year, ADL called for increased expenditures for America's military

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ADL BULLETIN

June, 1980 Volume 37 Number 6 ISSN 0001-9336

"To stop defamation of the Jewish people ...

To secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike."

— ADL CHARTER, 1913

Published monthly except July and August by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, 823 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017. Maxwell E. Greenberg, national chairman; Seymour Graubard, Burton M. Joseph, Dore Schary, honorary chairmen; Kenneth J. Bialkin, chairman, national executive committee; Nathan Perlmutter, national director; Abraham H. Foxman, associate national director; Leonard L. Abess, Edgar M. Bronfman, Maxwell Dane, Lawrence A. Harvey, Jacob K. Javits, Philip M. Klutznick, Carl Levin, Arthur Levitt, Samuel H. Miller, Bernard Nath, Robert R. Nathan, Benjamin A. Ribicoff, Matthew B. Rosenhaus, Benjamin S. Rosenthal, William Sachs, Melvin H. Schlesinger, S. O. Shapiro, Theodore H. Silbert, Sidney R. Rates, honorary vice-chairmen; Dorothy Binstock, Jerry Dubroff, Bruce I. Hochman, Max M. Kampelman, Philip Krupp, Milton Mollen, vice chairmen; Thomas D. Mantel, vice-chairman, national executive commit-
tee; Benjamin Greenberg, Richard M. Lederer, Jr., honorary treasurers, Charles Goldring, treasurer; Howard F. Berkowitz, assistant treasurer; Martin L. C. Feldman, secretary; Seymour D. Reich, assistant secretary; Arnold Forster, general counsel. ADL Foundation: Benjamin R. Epstein, executive vice-president; B'nai B'rith: Jack J. Spitzer, president; Daniel Thursz, executive vice-president; B'nai B'rith Women: Grace Day, president.

Subscription Rate: $3.00 for two years. To report change of address send mailing label, new address and zip code. Second class postage paid at Post Office, New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Printed in U.S.A.
Lynne Ianniello: Executive Editor • Lily Edelman: Editor • Harry Neuschaefer: Art Director • Martin Silverman: Design

The Middle East

*Continued from page 1*

ventional superiority with our strategic nuclear superiority. As late as 1973, when we went on alert at the end of the Middle East war, we had something like 8,000 warheads and the Soviet Union had something like 600 to 1,000. We had then an enormous superiority, which made it very dangerous for the Soviets to drive matters beyond a certain point. From now on, the nuclear balance will be about equal; and as a result, the Soviet conventional strength is bound to increase, to count for more.

If one looks around the Soviet periphery, almost all the changes in recent years have occurred as the result of Soviet arms, Soviet friendship treaties, Soviet proxy troops, Soviet bases — which creates a massive sense of insecurity around the world. We have announced the so-called Carter Doctrine for the defense of the Persian Gulf, but there is an enormous gap between our commitment and our capability. And if that gap is not closed, the radicalization is bound to continue. The danger inherent in the fact that countries prefer important neutrality to a military relationship with the United States is a warning sign that must be dealt with. There can be no good policy for us in the Middle East until we restore the actuality and the perception of American strength.

Moderates and Radicals

The second problem has to do with the balance between moderates and radicals in the Middle East and in the world. This has, in turn, two aspects: the first has to do with the perception by leaders around the world of what the likely trends and their chances for survival and progress are. As they see the growth of Soviet power and of radical strength, more and more countries are going to make accommodations, even before a test of strength occurs. More and more countries are attempting to avoid economic pressures by preempting them with concessions, and this balance between moderation and radicalism must be restored.

Award Dinner

Dr. Kissinger, former Secretary of State, received the Anti-Defamation League's 1980 America's Democratic Legacy Award "for distinguished contributions to the enrichment of America's democratic legacy." This article was his acceptance speech.

Honed at the same dinner, May 7, at New York's Plaza Hotel, was attorney and philanthropist Irving D. Lipkowitz "for his dedication to equal justice and opportunity and his services to humanity." Edgar M. Bronfman, chairman and chief executive officer of The Seagram Company, Ltd., was dinner chairman. ADL's national director, Nathan Perlmutter, was the keynote speaker.

"If there be a cardinal sin in the list of human evils," Mr. Lipkowitz said, in accepting his award, "I believe it is racial and religious bigotry." He went on to say, however, that "total egalitarians miss the point. They would divide the wealth equally, impose quotas and ratios in education, in employment and in the political process regardless of merit, overlooking the crucial fact that all human progress throughout history owes its origin to the talented and the enterprising. We must keep a system that allows us to develop and use the talents and excellence of all, no matter what their origin."

In his address, Mr. Perlmutter discussed the federal Small Business Administration's decision finding the Hasidim to be "disadvantaged" but refusing to grant them help because they constitute a religious body. Pointing out that the application did not request aid for religious purposes, Mr. Perlmutter said that for the SBA "to deny Hasidim group benefits of a minority business assistance program on the grounds of their religion, is to discriminate against them because of their religion." ADL has petitioned the SBA "to reconsider and correct this injustice."

I have always believed that the United States must stand by its friends. As an individual, I have attempted to defend my conception of American honor towards foreign allies because it has been my belief that a country that does not stand by its friends will not be taken seriously by its adversaries. And if we once start getting into the business of putting price tags on our friends, there will be no end to it. One of the most fundamental challenges for the United States is to make it clear that there is a benefit in being our friend and a penalty in being our adversary. And until this balance is restored, we can be certain to be challenged more and more. Without an understanding of these matters, the situation in the Middle East is not comprehensible.

## No Negotiation with P.L.O.

The Arab-Israeli negotiation is but one aspect of that overall situation. The balance between moderates and radicals will not be restored by negotiating procedures in West Bank negotiations; our fundamental problem and challenge as Americans is to make clear that whatever concessions may be made and whatever mutual adjustments result emerge from countries that have a choice. Moderation is a virtue only in those who are believed to have an alternative. It is not a virtue if extorted by constant pressures. For this reason, I hope very much that the negotiations succeed and that some solution will be found for the autonomy talks.

But I must also tell you frankly that even if the negotiations succeed and some solution emerges for autonomy, we will only be at the beginning and not at the end of the problem. The question of the jurisdiction of whatever that administrative council is called will be forever contentious; there is a fundamental disagreement as to its nature between those who believe it is the first step toward sovereignty and those who believe it is merely a technical administrative device, and that problem will not go away, even after successful negotiations.

I would therefore like to state a few principles.

While in office and after, I never believed and I do not believe now that the solution to the West Bank problem can be the creation of a Palestinian state. I did not believe then and I do not believe now that the Middle East needs another radical state in its midst.

I signed the Memorandum of Understanding as Secretary of State that we would not negotiate with the P.L.O., and it is often cited as an obstacle to what might be done had not the previous administration made this rather rash promise. That promise was not made as a favor to Israel; it did not result from an attempt to placate any group in this country. That statement arose from our conviction that the settlement on the West Bank must be one that includes Arabs who want to work for peace and not the most intransigent group that cannot possibly be satisfied — no matter what its proclamations — with what is achievable. And, therefore, I believe that as these negotiations develop, the most important challenge for the United States, for Israel, and for all who are concerned, must be to find some way to involve Jordan in the negotiation and to see whether that country can assume some responsibility for the administration of whatever it is that is finally negotiated, thereby turning the P.L.O. into an Arab problem rather than into a West European, American, or any other far-away country's problem.

I want to stress again that no negotiating gimmick can possibly work until we restore the balance between moderation and radicalism in the area and until we make clear that we are not forever in retreat. I think it is in the American interest to separate the oil problem as much as possible from any political negotiation. I think the more we involve the oil issue, or the more we talk ourselves into involving the oil issue into these negotiations, the more paradoxically we undermine the position of the moderate elements, even in the Arab world; if we affirm the connection, they cannot resist

the linkage. And they will not be able to oppose those radical elements who have always advocated an explicit linkage between oil and settlements. Nor is there any terminal point if that process starts.

I believe we must all hope for the negotiations between Egypt and Israel to make further progress; we must supplement them as rapidly as possible with some Jordanian role on the West Bank. And we must avoid the illusion that the world crisis sketched here can possibly be solved by dealing with one group using terrorist methods associated with all our opponents in that area. That is nostalgia, evasion, potential disaster.

Having said all of this, I would like to stress that while the current trends in the world are ominous and while one sometimes has the feeling of various crises running out of control, we should keep in mind that the fundamental assets are on the Western side. We produced moderation finally in the Middle East when it became clear that the military option would bring no progress. We will produce moderation in the world at large when we make the same demonstration. We have twice the gross national product of the Soviet Union. We have a creative people. We have strong allies.

Even in the Middle East we have the nucleus, in Israel and in the peace agreement with Egypt, of the fundamental strengths, and therefore there is no reason for us to be timid. There is no reason for us to curry the favor of any one group that is attempting to blackmail us.

It is rather an opportunity for confidence and imagination and for the realization that we are in a very fortunate position and that, contrary to most people in the world, we can still say to ourselves that the solution of our problems is up to us. And Israel, a state which was an idea before it became a reality, testifies to the power of faith; it can show us that all great achievements were ideas before they became a reality.

The most important task before America today is to get the idea of the kind of world we want, the strength to vindicate it, and the confidence to stand by our friends. ☐

## NEWS BRIEFS

**MORE ON MISHA** — R. Dakin & Company has written to amplify the ADL Bulletin article on Soviet stuffed Misha bears (February, 1980) being manufactured in Russian prison labor camps. According to Dakin, the plush bears labeled "Misha" marketed in the United States are distributed by their firm and are manufactured for the company either in South Korea, the United States or Mexico through "free labor paid for at prevailing rates and under excellent working conditions." In addition, the company says that a portion of the license fee for Misha, the Olympics mascot, is paid by them directly to the U.S. Olympics Committee.

**GIFTS FOR GRADS** — If you know a college-bound senior, ADL has two ideas for a graduation gift that is both useful and inexpensive: the agency's ever-practical school

year calendar, the Memo and Date Book; and a gift subscription to a vital periodical for any student, the ADL Bulletin.

The latest Date Book, an attractive 96-page spiral-bound volume, pays tribute to the American family with vin-

tage photos of many ethnic, religious and racial family groups ($3).

The ADL Bulletin ($3 for a two-year subscription, submit name of recipient, address, including zip code) provides timely reports and analyses on all areas of Jewish concerns, and will insure that the student away from home is kept abreast of the changing pulse of the community. Address orders, specifying publication, to 823 United Nations Plaza, NY 10017, or your local ADL office.

**FOR THE RECORD** — ADL asked the federal government to take action against "block-busting for profit" by enforcing the Fair Housing section of the 1968 Civil Rights Act. In a letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development on its proposed rules changes, the League said: "It is distressing that after 12 years, there are still no teeth in the law and that these new proposals still don't contain any" ... Responding to a TV Guide article claiming ADL had approved of the TV film, "The Day Christ Died," Theodore Freedman, Program Division director, in-

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