STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

Sec State John Kerry’s “Reality Test” of Middle East Negotiation Failure—Predictably a Failure from the Very Beginning!

Nothing spells failure as loudly as the public pronouncements of Sec State John Kerry’s insistence of personalizing the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Negotiations.  In over thirty years in the psychological profession of helping to develop the strategy/tactics for peace treaties,   I have never heard more narcissistic possessiveness of a diplomatic engagement than the one that John Kerry tried to implement between Bibi [Israel] and Abbas[ Palestine].

All that one could hear in the media was the constant travail of the poor Kerry flying in splendor from Washington D.C. to all points Middle East and elsewhere.   The intense media coverage encouraged by the self-aggrandizing Kerry,  who was the first Vietnam combat veteran to bring a camera crew into the war to film his ‘presumed warrior skills’,  never abated.   Therefore,  everything that Kerry did or did not do was dramatized into front page news when in fact very little was accomplished. 

  No one in the White House was willing to control this ‘Flying Dutchman of Narcissus’ seeking the ever evasive Nobel Peace Prize which his former junior Senatorial colleague,  Obama,  received for doing absolutely nothing.   Oops,  sorry about that,  Obama did start a war in Afghanistan just after he had grabbed the Swedish farce of a symbol.   Trust me no country can be as hypocritical than the so-called “neutral Swedes” who funded and armed the Nazi machinery ad infinitum.   Thanks to the nefarious Wallenburg family!!

Now back to our Prince Charming,  John Kerry……

Never once throughout his peace initiatives was there any hint of a clear strategy or clearly formulated outcome.   What became obvious to me, as well as other national security professionals,  was an interminable process of meetings held throughout a nine month gestation period characteristic of birth through procreation.   Instead of some type of Memorandum of Understanding [MOU],  Kerry achieved in that nine month gestation period a well-documented obituary replete with vituperative slanders from both Israeli and Palestinian officials,  pleading for a respite from Kerry’s impolitic intrusions into their nations’ respective progress.

Plainly stated: Kerry made a bad situation exceedingly worse.

In contrast to Kerry’s spectacular defeat,  let me offer you a narrative of someone who created a very successful peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.  Of course,  I am talking about the septuagenarian,  former President Jimmy Carter.

  In 1978,  Carter decided to appoint then Secretary of State Cyrus Vance,  a discreet, effective diplomat to organize and lead a team of experts who could help the President to develop the impossible task of creating a peace treaty between the former belligerent enemies—Israel, led by Menachim Beguin [Likud] and Anwar Sadat [ Egyptian Military, President].

 

Unlike Kerry’s fiasco,  Vance ordered a ‘gag order’ on everyone so that there would be no discussion with the press from any source other than Vance or Carter.   Silence and discretion prevailed throughout the preliminary preparations on the American side.   All relevant agencies were included in the development of a clear strategy accompanied by a matrix of possible negotiation strategies and tactics.   We had developed this negotiation matrix in order to counter any and all possible obstructions toward a successful outcome.   There was no ‘showmanship’ or ‘self-aggrandizing’ allowed or tolerated.

 

I can say that the CIA, under Admiral Stanfield Turner,  provided all types of relevant intelligence regarding personality differences; possible political and economic quagmires; and historical imperatives.   However,  the most compelling contributions from my point of view were from the so-called, highly maligned State Department “Arabists”. 

  Famous US Foreign Service Officers like Herman Eilts [Egypt];  David Newsom;  Frank Wisner;  Arthur Houghton;  Nick Veliotes;  Dean Brown were essential to the understanding the Arab/Palestinian consequences of the Camp David Accords.   Unfortunately,  these experts and FSOs like them had been attacked by the Neocons,  like Robert Kaplan and other Jews,  who had never really ever worked intensively on any treaty or accord dealing with two completely different cultures and personalities.

Back to the main success story-Camp David Accord,  1978.

The real hero of this major success story is the oft forgotten and purposefully overlooked President Jimmy Carter.   Vance asked me one final question before he,  Zbig Brezinski [National Security Advisor]  and Carter went to Camp David:  “What do you think will happen,  Doctor Steve?”

“I can predict Begin’s  and Sadat’s behaviors.  They will want to go down in history as statesmen and not ‘terrorists’.” 

Then I hesitated.  Ironically,  I could not predict the following person:
“Quite frankly,  I don’t know how President Carter will respond.”

As many of you had learned from my previous blogs,  I had been insubordinate to POTUS when attempting to the save the lives of five hundred hostages in the infamous Hanafi Muslim Hostage Seige of Washington, D. C. in 1977.   As it turned out,  even I was surprised to discover that President Carter had singlehandedly manipulated both Begin and Sadat into an agreement that lasted almost half a century.

Never once was that agreement entitled Carter’s Initiative or  Vance’s Israel-Egypt Agreement.   The treaty was called correctly the Camp David Peace Treaty.

  What have we learned since then?

  Clearly,   our so-called leaders do not rely on the expertise of those who have succeeded in the past to create treaties or effective strategies to counter aggressive overtures like Putin in Crimea.   American leaders want to re-invent the wheel over and over again.

  Recently,  I saw President Jimmy Carter on the Stephen Colbert Show,  Colbert asked him a very penetrating question:
“Has Obama asked you for advice?”

“No,” Carter politely answered with some southern charm.

  That ‘no’ resounded loudly in my ears.

If this administration or any other Presidential administration does not ask advice from it’s own distinguished predecessors, whatever their political affiliation, then America will have to rely on the likes of “The Kerry Flying Dutchman”,  wandering about in a worldwind of meaningless process.  Our leaders are ignoring and wasting a valuable American asset if they continue to ignore our past foreign policy successes.  Politicians must put egos aside and tap into this expertise from those that were on the ground and who are still among us.

  Please note that Putin of Russia and Xi Jipeng of China are all waiting to return to the main stage of foreign policy.  They will return on their own terms.

All that money we have spent on electronic surveillance and force structure can never compensate for good old fashioned experience,  competency and discretion.

  

America! do not allow your leaders to exhibit foolish,  childish,  self-adulation,  signifying much of nothing more than a Malignant National Narcissism.  If we do not hold leadership accountable,  America will be the loser.