Michael Piper and Final Judgment

[Magda Hassan]

[Israel's early sponsor was France not the US. It wasn't until after the Arab-Israeli wars in the late 60's and early 70's that the US stepped up with meaningful amounts of money. I think you over estimate Kennedy's ability to do a thing about it apart from hold his breath to eleventy, give lectures to them or denounce the country at the UN. Which all would have been totally ignored in the same way the British were ignored before Partition. Or do you really think he was going to invade or bomb them? I am sure Kennedy was wanting to stop it but that wasn't going to happen in the real world any more than he could have stopped the UK or France with their's.

Yes I know France was Israel's original supplier. This ended with DeGaulle's election in the late 50's.

But that's not the point here is it?

The point being debated here, which you seem to ignore, is whether or not Kennedy strongly opposed the Israeli nuclear program. I think we have established here that he did oppose the nuclear program to the point of risking a major confrontation with Israel over the issue.

I was ridiculed rudely by Mr. Coogan for making this point and I have now proved him wrong.

The question of whether or not Kennedy could have stopped the program in reality is, once again, beside the point. The point here is that Kennedy thought he could. That's what drove him to confront Israel so directly. He was determined to use the strongest diplomatic pressure at his disposal to get a result.

Why would you think that I would seriously entertain the notion that Kennedy would bomb or invade Israel?

That's pretty weird Magda.

Yes, it is pretty weird but what was the alternative? Nothing. Just "strongly opposing the Israeli nuclear program" Which amount to a just lot of hot air. That's all he could do. It doesn't matter that Kennedy thought he could stop it. Because he couldn't. He can write letters to Ben Gurion till the cows came home. He can stomp his feet and pout. Pull his hair out and tell everyone how bad Israel is. He can yell at their ambassador. Expel him even though I doubt he would have done that even. What matters is that the Israeli's knew he couldn't stop them. Their programme was already a fact of life, a reality, and needed no US inputs as they had all they needed already. Ergo, they had no reason to assassinate him because they had what they wanted and he could do nothing about it and they Israelis knew it even if Kennedy thought otherwise. Kennedy would just have to suck it up. Just as some do today.