Final_Judgment

[366] Final Judgment 463
administration knew of the planned attack on Israel by Syria and Egypt
thirty hours before the United States actually notified Israel. 941
According to pro-Israel Nixon critics, John Loftus and Mark Aarons,
Nixon's staff "had at least two days advance warning that an attack was
coming . . . but no one in the Nixon White House warned the Jews until the
last few hours on the day of the attack." 942
Loftus and Aarons say that, "Although our sources think that
incompetence, not malice, was the reason for delaying the warning, Nixon
certainly had a motive for revenge . . . Nixon was well aware that, apart
from J. Edgar Hoover, only the Israelis knew enough about his past to cause
him major political damage. 943
"As the Watergate tape-recordings show, Nixon was terribly afraid of the
Jews. He made lists of his enemies and kept track of Jewish Americans in
his administration . . . Whatever the motive, during September and
October 1973 the Nixon White House turned a blind eye toward Sadat's
plans for a consolidated sneak attack against the Jews." 944
There is other evidence that Nixon was making behind-the-scenes
efforts to foil the power and influence of the Israeli lobby, despite the
widespread perception today that Nixon was somehow a "friend" of Israel.
For example, respected British journalist Alan Hart has noted that as early
as 1973 Nixon's Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, was warning the
government of Israel that Nixon might be preparing to cut off arms to Israel.
The truth is, as Hart has pointed out, Nixon was actively aligning
himself (behind the scenes) with King Feisal of Saudi Arabia in attempting
to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all.
Hart has described Nixon's efforts (through the good offices of King
Feisal) to engage Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in back-channel
negotiations for a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement. However,
when Kissinger learned of the negotiations (which had initially been
conducted behind his back) he intervened and put a kibosh on the Nixon-
Feisal peace effort, evidently viewing it as a threat to Israel.
In addition, Hart has noted that, according to his sources, at one point
Nixon himself told King Feisal that if the Israelis and their American lobby
continued to frustrate Nixon's efforts to settle the Middle East conflict that he—
Nixon—was fully intent upon tearing up his pre-prepared State of the Union
address and go on national television and radio and explain to the American
people how Israel and its American lobby were the real obstacle to peace in
the Middle East.
(For a full overview of these matters—plus much more on the intrigue of
Israel—see Alan Hart's 1984 volume, Arafat—Terrorist or Peacemaker?
Published by London-based Sidgwick & Jackson.)
Clearly, there was much more afoot behind the scenes in the fateful
years of 1973-1974 during which time the Watergate scandal began to
escalate and—ultimately—bring down Richard Nixon. He—like John F.
Kennedy before him—was engaged in a secret war with Israel, and, as this