Kissinger was against an Israeli victory in Yom Kippur War

In addition to the convincing information that Henry Kissinger “cooked” the Yom Kippur War in order to advance his own goals, there is an op-ed from the war time written by James Reston, one of the leading US journalists. The article that was partially translated into Hebrew in the Israeli magazine “Ha’olam Hazeh” corroborates the “cooking” theory and demonstrates that the US Secretary of State was against Isreali and Egyptian victories. Kissinger’s broader goal is not mentioned in Reston’s op-ed: that both sides will crawl and bid for help from the US. Something that should strengthen the US position in the Middle East and generally.

Already in 2012 I wrote about the The Yom Kippur War and the Kissinger Plot. The evidence mentioned there was strong and described my general belief, although there are still holes and a lot of details to be looked into and investigate.

E.g. in 2012 I wrote:
“On 13 October 1973, in the middle of the Yom Kippur war, Kissinger said:

“We had two objectives in the war: to maintain contact with both sides. For this the best outcome would be an Israeli victory but it would come at a high price, so we could insist that they ensure their security through negotiations, not through military power. Second, we attempted to produce a situation where the Arabs would conclude the only way to peace was through us. But during the war we had to show the Israelis they had to depend on us to win and couldn't win if we were to recalcitrant.”

Kissinger talked about his goals and/or of the US and actually admitted that he had planned the war as is showed also by other evidence. It now becomes obvious that he did not say things like this only in closed circles, but also to a respected journalist that published it. I.e., that Kissinger did not care that Israel and Egypt will be aware of the plot or even he was interested that it will be known in order to put the parties under pressure.

James Reston

Thanks to Moshe Shaverdi from the Facebook group “Yom Kippur War – Memories, Scars, Sorrows and all the rest”, I watched a German TV report about the late “Ha’olam Hazeh” editor in chief, Uri Avnery. The report was produced during the war and at min. 3:50 one can see Avnery translating a passage out of The New York Times (here the whole NYT op-ed). On 24.10.1973 the following appeared in the “Ha’olam Hazeh” (here the whole Hebrew article):

“Against Israeli Victory

Last Thursday [it should read last Friday –se] it was published in The New York Times an op-ed by James Reston, one of the most important journalists in the US. Everybody understood that the article came from a senior source high up in the US administration. Its title was:

“The Hidden Compromise.”

“The opening words were: “Despite America's massive airlift of planes and ammunition to Israel, it would be mistake to assume that the Nixon Administration's objective is to assure another spectacular Israeli victory in the Middle East war.

Washington is not trying to restore the military situation that existed before the Arab attack, which produced a diplomatic stalemate. It is trying to get a compromise cease‐fire that will open the way to a negotiated settlement, and it is measuring its supplies to Israel with this in mind.”

And the conclusion was: “Nixon and Kissinger don't say this publicly, but they are pressing privately, not for an Israeli victory, but for an Israeli compromise.”

And in fact they achieved this goal. Because of the cease-fire the war remained without s military conclusion. In this situation it is impossible to release the armies and send most of the soldiers home. This cease-fire is not stable and cannot be continued for long time, like the one that was before along the [Suez] channel. The situation is too fragile and is under the sign of temporariness. And also this was desired by the Americans. They wanted that the situation itself will pressure both sides – and mainly Israel – to chose a conciliate position towards the conflict itself.”

Neither Reston nor Avnery could have known then many things and therefore their conclusions and some details are not true or complete. The USSR and Nixon were not involved in the complot, but rather on the contrary, it was against them. Today there cannot be any doubt that Kissinger wanted that Egypt will break up with the USSR and turn to the US and he indeed succeeded at that. Therefore the claim that the USSR would have armed Egypt after the war, is erroneous, or was written in the framework of a psychological warfare.

Actually it was possible to reach a Israeli-Egyptian reconciliation without the war, but it was Kissinger who mainly prevented a settlement. In a large part Kissinger’s scheme succeeded and he boasted later before President Gerald Ford:

“Kissinger: We couldn’t have done better if we had set the scenario.

The President: Even the heavy Israeli losses helped, didn’t they?

Kissinger: Once the war started, we helped Israel stabilize the situation. But it was not without a cost they couldn’t sustain. Their casualties were enormous and had enormous impact. But they restored the situation and reversed some Arab cockiness—but the Arabs know Israel can’t stand attrition.”

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There are some changes from the Hebrew original:

http://cafe.themarker.com/post/3440672/