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| June 5, 1968 was the first anniversary of the beginning of the ]. On that day ] became the first American politician murdered by an ] ].<ref name=" It’s Foreign Policy, Stupid! ">{{cite web | title = | June 5, 1968 was the first anniversary of the beginning of the ]. On that day ] became the first American politician murdered by an ] ].<ref name=" It’s Foreign Policy, Stupid! ">{{cite web | title = | ||
| It’s Foreign Policy, Stupid! | publisher = Jerusalem World News||author=Mike Evans | date = May 7, 2007 | url = http://myjwn.com/uncategorized/its-foreign-policy-stupid-2| accessdate = March 9, 2010}}</ref> | It’s Foreign Policy, Stupid! | publisher = Jerusalem World News||author=Mike Evans | date = May 7, 2007 | url = http://myjwn.com/uncategorized/its-foreign-policy-stupid-2| accessdate = March 9, 2010}}</ref> <ref name=" Robert Kennedy’s murder: a missed opportunity for the US? ">{{cite web | title = Robert Kennedy’s murder: a missed opportunity for the US? | ||
| <ref name=" Robert Kennedy’s murder: a missed opportunity for the US? ">{{cite web | title = Robert Kennedy’s murder: a missed opportunity for the US? | |||
| | publisher = Daily Star, Lebanon||author=Michael R. Fischbach | date = June 3, 2003 | | publisher = Daily Star, Lebanon||author=Michael R. Fischbach | date = June 3, 2003 | ||
| | url = http://aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2003%20Opinion%20Editorials/June%202003%20Opinion/3o/Robert%20Kennedys%20murder,%20a%20missed%20opportunity%20for%20the%20US,%20Michael%20R%20Fischbach.htm | | url = http://aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2003%20Opinion%20Editorials/June%202003%20Opinion/3o/Robert%20Kennedys%20murder,%20a%20missed%20opportunity%20for%20the%20US,%20Michael%20R%20Fischbach.htm | ||
| | accessdate = March 9, 2010}}</ref> | | accessdate = March 9, 2010}}</ref> | ||
| The story that ended in tragedy in ] in ] had started twenty years earlier in a different part of the world. |
The story that ended in tragedy in ] in ]<ref>{{cite book |last=Taraborrelli |first=J. Randy |authorlink=J. Randy Taraborrelli |title=Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot |publisher=] |year=2000 |pages=333 |isbn=0446524263}}</ref> had started twenty years earlier in a different part of the world. | ||
| Robert F. Kennedy was in Palestine at most from March 26 to April 15, less than a month. He was a 22 year old football player and barely out of college. <ref name="Robert Kennedy and His Times" /> | |||
| ==The beginning of the end== | ==The beginning of the end== | ||
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June 5, 1968 was the first anniversary of the beginning of the Six-Day War. On that day Robert F. Kennedy became the first American politician murdered by an Arab terrorist.
The story that ended in tragedy in The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles had started twenty years earlier in a different part of the world.
The beginning of the end
In April 1948 Robert F. Kennedy worked as a reporter for The Boston Post. Then twenty-two year old Kennedy was assigned to report on the situation in the then British Mandate of Palestine. He traveled to Palestine just a month before Israel declared independence. The impressions he got from the trip made Kennedy a strong supporter of Israel for the rest of his life and probably determined his destiny.
Robert Kennedy's oldest daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, believed that her father’s support for Israel was the main reason for his assassination by an Arab terrorist, Sirhan Sirhan, who did not try to hide that he was enraged by Israel’s victory in Six-Day War and by Kennedy's support for the Jewish state. Just a year after the Israeli victory Sirhan wrote: "My determination to eliminate R.F.K. is becoming the more and more of an unshakable obsession...Kennedy must die before June 5th". Sirhan's thinking was unsurprising. He was educated in the West Bank, then under Jordanian rule. The textbooks used for teaching Arab children went beyond the worst excesses of the textbooks of German children under the Nazi regime.
Robert Kennedy’s support for Israel might be appreciated even more if one remembers that his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, was known to make some anti-Semitic remarks.
In spite of his antisemitism, Joseph P. Kennedy probably was proud of his son Robert. The twenty-two year old former football player proved to be mature enough to recognize that a Jewish state could became the only "stabilizing factor" in the region. He wrote: "The Arab world is made up of many disgruntled factions which would have been at each other’s throats long ago if it had not been for the common war against Zionism."
Robert Kennedy was also correct when he completely dismissed the notion that a Jewish state would ever become a Communist state.
The dispatches
While in Palestine, Kennedy talked to members of the Irgun, to a former Soviet Army major, to a 23-year old girl who worked in propaganda services, and to a Haganah soldier. He became expressive while visiting a kibbutz. He wrote that the Jews have "an undying spirit" and said: "They will fight, and fight with unparalleled courage." At the same time he mentioned that Jews and Arabs working side by side in the orange groves and in the fields was a hopeful sign for the future of the region. Young Kennedy had a special gift for getting people to talk to him. He was mesmerized to learn that a Haganah soldier had shot his sister when he found out that she was not going to leave her British boyfriend. He was horrified when Arabs told him that they were going to poison the water supply of Jerusalem. It was clear to him that although the causes of Jews and Arabs were different, no side was going to compromise:
The die has long since been cast; the fight will take place. The Jews with their backs to the sea, fighting for their very homes, with 101 percent morale, will accept no compromise. On the other hand, the Arabs say: "We shall bring Moslem brigades from Pakistan, we shall lead a religious crusade for all loyal followers of Mohammed, we shall crush forever the invader. Whether it takes three months, three years, or 30, we will carry on the fight. Palestine will be Arab. We shall accept no compromise."
In one of his unpublished remarks he complained that US Zionists only harm the cause with their speeches because they do not spend enough time in the region. He was impressed with the "new" Jews he discovered in Palestine. Those were different Jews, not like the ones he used to know in the US. He wrote: "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."
On May 14, 1948 British Mandate ended.
The dispatches that Kennedy wrote in Palestine were published in The Boston Post on June 3, 4, 5 and 6, 1948. The first one, titled "BRITISH HATED BY BOTH SIDES", immediately attracted attention to the reports.
The following are quotes from Robert Kennedy's dispatches.
- "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..."
References
- Mike Evans (May 7, 2007). "It's Foreign Policy, Stupid!". Jerusalem World News. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - Michael R. Fischbach (June 3, 2003). "Robert Kennedy's murder: a missed opportunity for the US?". Daily Star, Lebanon. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - Taraborrelli, J. Randy (2000). Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot. Warner Books. p. 333. ISBN 0446524263.
- ^ "This Kennedy was our friend". Jerusalem Post. April 4, 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
- "Sirhan Bishara Sirhan Trial: 1969 - A Murder Plan".
- Mel Ayton (May 16, 2005). "The 'Unaffiliated' Terrorist". Frontpagemag.com. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - Renehan 26-27; Leamer 136.
- ^ Arthur Meier Schlesinger (2002). "Robert Kennedy and His Times". www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com. pp. 74–77. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) Cite error: The named reference "Robert Kennedy and His Times" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ "Robert Kennedy's 1948 Reports from Palestine". www.jcpa.org. June 5, 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2010.