With them, however, foes might agree on enough to reach partial accords. Without them, moral demands for total peace are unlikely to yield useful results. The second outlook assumes that a piecemeal approach alone can plausibly begin to unravel the regional knots - and then only under ripe circumstances. Only an all-encompassing peace deal can resolve the conflict. All the issues, it assumes, are so trussed together that none can be treated in isolation. One envisions a “comprehensive” solution to the conflict’s conundrums. There have always been - I streamline - two basic outlooks on Arab-Israeli peace-making. “It is difficult,” Kissinger wrote in White House Years, “for any American leader to accept the fact that in some conflicts opposing positions are simply irreconcilable.” If any row seemed to approximate that formulation, it was that among the Arabs and Israel. That discernment is perhaps the book’s lesson for today. The key to his success was a realistic evaluation of what could and could not be accomplished in the circumstances. Kissinger’s Middle East diplomacy was a feat that should impress even those who criticize him trenchantly for his role in American foreign policy decisions concerning elsewhere in the world. Indyk is perhaps too accepting of his protagonist’s own narratives, but he shows cogently how Kissinger’s worldview and his mix of skillful political pressures, discerning brinksmanship and dexterous prevarications brought results few imagined possible. This ex-assistant secretary of State, ambassador to Israel and participant in Israeli-Palestinian parleys offers a strong brief for Kissinger’s strategy during the war and the “shuttle” or “step-by-step” diplomacy - better called flight-by-flight - that he conducted afterwards. His efforts are detailed exhaustively in Martin Indyk’s estimable and deeply researched new book, The Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy (Knopf, 2021). Washington issued “Defcon III,” the highest level of worldwide military alert. intelligence reported that Soviet ships bound for the Middle East might have nuclear weapons. Moscow threatened intervention on behalf of the Arab side, calling up airborne and amphibious troops and expanding its Mediterranean naval forces. But then Arab oil producers, led by Saudi Arabia, imposed an embargo on anyone aiding the Jewish state, prompting U.S. was on its way out of Vietnam, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned, and Watergate exploded in the “Saturday Night Massacre.” In the meantime, pummeled Israel turned for help to its American ally. It is often forgotten just how rattling that month was in Washington. Egypt’s forces assaulted the Israelis across the Suez Canal and Syrian tanks smashed through Israeli defenses in the Golan Heights. 6, 1973 - on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur and in the Muslim sacred month of Ramadan. A new book shows why the controversial secretary of State’s step-by-step diplomacy remains the most promising way to break through in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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