62 years before Kerry, another State Department official blamed Israel for everything

JNS has an interesting article detailing ten failed Arab-Israeli peace plans that America was partially or fully behind.

I had never heard of the first of them.

JTA, April 12, 1954, reports what sounds a hell of a lot like John Kerry today:

In what must be considered a major policy declaration by the United States Government on the Palestine question and one which is bound to arouse bitter controversy, Henry Byroade, Assistant Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs, told the Dayton World Affairs Council this week-end that Israel inferentially has the major burden of blame for the Arab-Israel tension. Secretary Byroade’s speech was made available in Washington before its delivery here with the comment that it was an important policy document.

Sec. Byroade declared: “To the Israelis I say that you should come to truly look upon yourselves as a Middle Eastern state–and see your own future in that context rather than as a headquarters or nucleus so to speak of world-wide groupings of peoples of particular religious faith who must have special rights within and obligations to the Israeli State.”

Stop being so Jewy!  The Arabs don't like it!

He further advised Israel that “you should drop the attitude of the conqueror and the conviction that force and a policy of retaliatory killings is the only policy that your neighbors will understand. You should make your deeds correspond to your frequent utterance of the desire for peace.”

Stop defending yourselves from attacks! The Arabs don't like it!

In fact, Byroade spent a great deal of the speech describing Arab grievances and demands, and a small section inaccurately describing Israel's point of view. As with Kerry, issues important to Israel got some lip service but it is the Arab narrative that was considered the closest to the truth - and what US policy should follow.

Another parallel between Kerry and Byroade: Kerry spoke at the J-Street conference, and Byroade spoke in 1954 at the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism, which lobbied against the Jewish state both before and after 1948. ACJ was very influential in the State Department during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, at times writing the language for speeches given by State Department officials.

At the conference, Byroade denounced Jewish immigration to Israel as the major obstacle to peace.

Think about it. Arabs at the time couldn't complain about "occupation" so they chose whatever other issues they could find to attack Israel in the international community.  They tried the refugee issue, and that got a little bit of traction. But they also tried to claim that Jewish immigration was a major issue to them - and some Western leaders believed them.

The Arabs, trying to destroy Israel, threw whatever they could at the wall to see what would stick. Nowadays, that is Jerusalem and "occupation" and "settlements." But what well-meaning (and some not-so well-meaning) Westerners don't realize is that even if the "major obstacle to peace" is removed, the Israel haters will find another one.

Before "occupation," it was "immigration." And if Israel would make concessions today to create a Palestinian state, it wouldn't end Arab demands - it would increase them.

You can learn a lot from history. The State Department doesn't want you to know that their antipathy towards Israel pre-dates 1967, and then as now it exactly mirrored the made-up Arab demands that are not meant for justice but for destruction of the Jewish state.

In 1954, after Byroade's speech, the Israeli government filed an official protest against the “unjustified interference in matters which are purely Israel's own concern.”

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