Netanyahu, Kissinger, Metternich, and Statecraft

Netanyahu, Kissinger, Metternich, and Statecraft

by PAUL EIDELBERG



"To hobnob with a clique of Muslim-Arab terrorist organizations responsible for the murder of some 1,500 Jewish men, women, and children and the maiming of 15,000 more since 1993 would strike any man of taste with disgust if not nausea."




Prince Metternich


Henry Kissinger, a Harvard professor of political science, and a Secretary of State under the Nixon Administration, is still emulated by Israeli prime ministers.


Kissinger very much owes his superiority to more recent American secretaries of state from what he learned by studying the statecraft of Austrian Chancellor  Klemens von Metternich (1773-1859) on whom he a wrote his doctoral dissertation.  Unlike Prince Metternich, however, Kissinger—however conceited he may be—is not an aristocrat. He is an assimilated Jew. And what is more, he never transcended the American policy of “détente” with the Soviet Union.


The idea of deténte or cooperation with an evil regime known to have slaughtered millions of its own citizens, moreover, a regime explicitly and ideologically committed to America’s demise, would have been deemed abhorrent, if not insane, to Prince Metternich, even though that aristocrat is usually identified as a “realist” as opposed to a “moralist.”


Much the same criticism applies to the so-called realism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, another assimilated Jew who consorts with the PLO-Palestinian Authority. To hobnob with a clique of Muslim-Arab terrorist organizations responsible for the murder of some 1,500 Jewish men, women, and children and the maiming of 15,000 more since 1993 would strike any man of taste with disgust if not nausea. We are not talking about ancient history, neither about Hitler and Neville Chamberlain, though Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Barack Obama are more than enough to turn one’s stomach. So let us try to understand something about statecraft.


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Ronald Reagan was not a Harvard graduate. Nor was Mr. Reagan of any blue-blood aristocracy. The “Great Communicator” was an American steeped in the aristocratic nuances of American Exceptionalism: you don’t collaborate and thereby dignify what Mr. Reagan had the candor and courage to call “the evil empire”—a candor and courage lacking today both in Washington and Jerusalem.


What the Kissingers and Netanyahus have learned from Metternich is pathetic compared to what Reagan learned, by instinct, from that nineteenth-century statesman. Metternich was not a shoddy realist or foolish moralist; he possessed practical wisdom.  Allow me to recall some things I have already written about Metternich’s principles of statecraft.


(1) To expect the leaders of a dictatorship—and the PLO-Palestinian Authority is a dictatorship—to be moderate is like asking them to destroy the foundation of their existence. The same may be said of Iran’s “Revolutionary Guard.”


(2) Any plan conceived in moderate terms must fail when the circumstances are set in the extreme.  Hence, in any situation where each of the possible lines of action involves difficulty, the strongest line is the best.  (Notice how the United States constantly asks Israel to exercise “self-restraint” or moderation vis-à-vis its enemies, be it the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority or Hamas. The same may be said of Washington’s policy of economic sanctions vis-à-vis Iran.)


(3) Compromise is the easy refuge of irresolute or unprincipled men.  Of course compromise is appropriate when dealing with temporary and partial interests.  But a nation’s survival is not a matter of compromise, and its survival can be undermined by the disarming policy of détente. (This is why I wrote “Beyond Détente: Toward an American Foreign Policy.” The galleys of this book were sent to the delegates of the 1976 Republican National Convention of that year. I urged Ronald Reagan, both in the book and through a speech writer of his, to oppose détente during the presidential primaries.)


(4) Nations with democratic forms of government are not for that reason the natural allies of each other or the implacable foes of dictatorships. (This principle prompted me to warn Defense Minister Shimon Peres, in an August 1976 face-to-face meeting, that the American government, animated by its interests in the Persian Gulf, would use the Arab propaganda of “self-determination of the Palestinian people” as a fig leaf to betray Israel.)


(5) In this age of publicity, the first care of government must be not only to be right, but, even more important, to see that everything is called by its right name.  (This principle has been constantly violated by Israeli governments steeped as they have been in the mendacious policy of “land for peace” or what PM Netanyahu foolishly refers to as “reciprocity,” a concept that would require Muslim Arabs to renounce their jihadic credo against infidels.)


(6) We must rely for the execution of our plans on ourselves alone and on such means as we possess.  (Israeli governments repeatedly violate this principle by relying excessively on the United States.)


(7) When called upon to handle important matters, the statesman must tackle them vigorously.  For this to happen it is necessary that the course decided upon should not only be clear in the eyes of the Cabinet, but should also be made clear in the eyes of the public.


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This last principle has been violated again and again by virtually every Israeli government that has adhered to the PLO-Israel Agreement. It should be understood, however, that Israel’s parliamentary electoral system, which installs several parties with different political agendas in the cabinet, is largely responsible for the feeble and deceitful character of this government.


Unfortunately, Mr. Netanyahu cannot reveal the truth about the mischievous nature of this government without implicating the integrity and loyalty of his predecessors. Hence, do not expect Metternich-inspired statecraft from this politician.

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