Israel Matzav

Alexander Haig was a friend of Israel

When I opened Twitter on Saturday night, I discovered several tweets announcing the death of Alexander Haig. My memories of him are largely as the Chief of Staff in the Nixon White House who coaxed President Nixon through his resignation (who can forget the scene in Woodward and Bernstein's The Final Days in which Haig holds Nixon's hand and prays with him?). But here in Israel, Haig is remembered more as Ronald Reagan's first Secretary of State.

This is former Israeli Minister of Defense and Ambassador to the United States Moshe Arens.

I first got to know him well when I arrived in Washington as Israel's ambassador in February 1982, when he was president Ronald Reagan's secretary of state. My first order of business was to request a private talk with him, just the two of us. He immediately consented. A few days after my arrival in Washington, on a Saturday, I was secretly whisked into the State Department building through an underground entrance. For the next two hours he and I, with no one else present, discussed the problems facing Israel and the situation in the Middle East.

When I told him our prime minister, Menachem Begin, was concerned that after having made substantial concessions during the negotiations leading up to the peace agreement with Egypt, he might now be pressured by the White House to make additional concessions inimical to Israel's interests, Haig responded by saying "not on my watch." He showed understanding for the problems we faced at the time along the Lebanese border, with the Palestine Liberation Organization militias encamped there launching attacks against northern Israeli villages. When we parted, I knew that Israel had a good friend in Washington and that I had also established a personal friendship with Al Haig.

While there is no truth in the persistent rumor that Haig gave Ariel Sharon - Israel's defense minister at the time, who visited Washington and discussed Israel's problems in the north with Haig - the "green light" for an Israeli military operation in Lebanon, we did have his steadfast support throughout the operation until he left the office of secretary of state. When at one point I described the operation to him and told him "Al, we are winning," he responded "you guys always win."

When Haig was outmaneuvered by Reagan's White House staff, forced to resign, and replaced by George Shultz, there was concern that his replacement might not be as friendly to Israel. But it turned out there was no reason for such concern, since Shultz had as strong a feeling of friendship for Israel as Haig, and expressed his support for Israel throughout his long tenure as secretary of state.

JPost waxes a little less nostalgic:

“I always had the impression that he considered himself a friend of Israel and understood its geo-security predicament as we moved through the years,” said [Daniel] Mariaschin, [Haig's spokesman in his 1988 Presidential campaign. CiJ] now executive vice president of B’nai B’rith International.

...

In 1998, Haig testified in an affidavit as part of Sharon’s libel suit against Haaretz and its columnist Uzi Benziman.

Benziman had written that in 1982, then-defense minister Sharon had deceived prime minister Menachem Begin, who had only approved a plan to send IDF troops 40 km. north of the Lebanese border.

Haig testified that Begin told him in October 1981 that the army had started plans for an incursion into Lebanon and that the troops would reach the approaches to Beirut, much more than 40 km. from Israel.

Haig once referred to Israel as “America’s largest aircraft carrier which never could be sunk.”

But according to historian Yehuda Avner, who served on the staffs of many prime ministers, Haig could also be annoyed by Israeli policies.

Avner wrote in a Post column that following the surprise annexation of the Golan Heights (actually the extension of Israeli law and administration to the area) in 1981, Haig, serving as secretary of state under president Ronald Reagan, proposed temporarily suspending the strategic cooperation agreement between the countries, a suggestion Reagan accepted.

Later in his life, Haig evolved into a firm believer in Israel as a powerful deterrent to terrorism. In 2001, he told the Post that it might not be a bad thing for Israel to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

“If the Israelis do launch a preemptive strike [on Iran], it may be saving the world a lot of trouble,” he said.

Too bad Haig didn't live to see that.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:46 AM