This Kennedy was our friend
LENNY BEN-DAVID , THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 4, 2008
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Hillary Clinton's horrible gaffe several weeks ago about Robert Kennedy's
assassination served as a reminder that RFK was gunned down exactly 40 years
ago as he left a primary victory celebration in California. Bobby generated
great hope and enthusiasm among America's young, especially those who were
opposed to the Vietnam war - not unlike the campaign of a young Illinois
Senator today.
RFK was a strong supporter of Israel, and that support was genuine, deep,
and heart-felt.
And it cost him his life.
His oldest daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, told me on his 30th
yahrzeit, "He was killed by an Arab terrorist [Sirhan Sirhan] because of his
support for Israel."
Sirhan's motives - which were expressed in his diary and trial - were fueled
by his anger over Israel's victory exactly one year earlier.
Ironically, June 5 is also another Kennedy anniversary. Sixty years ago,
just weeks after Israel declared its independence, the Boston Post published
a series of articles by the young college graduate who arrived in Palestine
in late March 1948. Bobby's words still inspire:
"The Jewish people in Palestine who believe in and have been working toward
this national state have become an immensely proud and determined people. It
is already a truly great modern example of the birth of a nation with the
primary ingredients of dignity and self-respect.
"From a small village of a few thousand inhabitants, Tel Aviv has grown into
a most impressive modern metropolis of over 200,000. They have truly done
much with what all agree was very little...
"The Jews point with pride to the fact that over 500,000 Arabs, in the 12
years between 1932-1944, came into Palestine to take advantage of living
conditions existing in no other Arab state..."
RFK'S WORDS also serve as a rejoinder to anti-Israel propagandists today.
Some revisionists claim that the Jews of the Yishuv outnumbered and
outgunned the Arabs in Palestine. Kennedy's eye-witness account is
different:
"When I was in Tel Aviv the Jews informed the British government that 600
Iraqi troops were going to cross into Palestine from Trans-Jordan by the
Allenby Bridge on a certain date and requested the British take appropriate
action to prevent this passage. The troops passed unmolested...
"I saw several thousand non-Palestinian Arab troops in Palestine, including
many of the famed British-trained and equipped Arab legionnaires of King
Abdullah. There were soldiers from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Trans-Jordan, and
they were all proudly pointed out to me by a spokesman of the Arab Higher
Committee... Every Arab to whom I talked spoke of thousands of soldiers
massed in the 'terrible triangle of Nablus, Tulkarm, Jenin' and of hundreds
that were pouring in daily...
"When I was in Lebanon and asked a dean at the American University in Beirut
if many students were leaving for the fight in Palestine he shrugged and
said, 'Not now - the quota has been oversubscribed.' When journeying by car
from Jerusalem to Amman I passed many truckloads of armed Arabs and even
then Jericho was alive with Arab troops. There is no question that it was
taken over by the Arabs for an armed camp long before May 15 [the British
date of departure]...
"The inability [of the Haganah] to make any long-range military maneuvers
because of the presence of the British has been a great and almost
disastrous handicap to the Jews... If the Haganah had waited for May 15th
and the withdrawal of British troops, there would be few alive in Jerusalem
today. Strong units of that body had moved into the hills on either side of
that strategic road and repelled Arab counterattacks long enough for several
hundred truckloads to make the 40-mile trip into the city... The maneuvers
had to take place and took place despite the British...."
IN ONE stirring passage, Kennedy joined with Haganah fighters and physically
placed himself in danger.
"I have ridden in Jewish armored car convoys which the British have stopped
to inspect for arms. As always, there were members of the Haganah aboard and
they quickly broke down their small arms, passing the pieces among the
occupants to conceal them so as to prevent confiscation... If the arms had
been found and confiscated and Arabs had attacked, there would have been but
a remote chance of survival for any of the occupants. There have been many
not as fortunate as we...."
ROBERT KENNEDY'S affinity for American Jews and empathy for the Jews of
Palestine was all the more remarkable considering his father's antipathy and
the views of one of his father's friends, Lord Beaverbrook. As related by
RFK's biographer, Arthur Schlesinger, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. opposed the
United States's entry into the war against Germany, and in the summer of
1942 complained to his friend, Beaverbrook, "There is a great undercurrent
of dissatisfaction with the appointment of so many Jews in high places in
Washington..."
In March 1948, Bobby found himself on the Queen Mary sailing to England with
Beaverbrook. Schlesinger relates, quoting from RFK's diary, that when the
young Kennedy told Beaverbrook he was heading to the Middle East, the
Englishman remarked that the United States was "a subjugated nation to a
Jewish minority..."
Bobby Kennedy was probably one of America's most optimistic and
forward-thinking politicians since Franklyn Roosevelt. His attitude is
reflected in his famous quote (paraphrasing G.B. Shaw), "There are those who
look at things the way they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never
were, and ask why not?"
And that attitude was obvious already in 1948 when RFK wrote, "It is against
all law and nature that this Jewish state should exist... The Jews believe
that in a few more years, if a Jewish state is formed, it will be the only
stabilizing factor remaining in the Near and Middle East... Vehemence and
hatred between the Jews and Arabs increase daily. But in many cases Jews and
Arabs work side by side in the fields and orange groves outside of Tel Aviv.
Perhaps these Jews and Arabs are making a greater contribution to the future
peace in Palestine than are those who carry guns on both sides..."
May his memory continue to be blessed.
------
The writer served as deputy chief of mission in Israel's embassy in
Washington. He blogs at www.lennybendavid.com. Robert Kennedy's articles can
be viewed at www.robertkennedyandisrael.blogspot.com
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