Foreign Affairs - 11.2019 - 12.2019

The Dream Palace of the Americans

November/December 2019 23

determine the extent o Israel’s with-

drawal. In the meantime, Israel would

retain and administer the territories.

ENTER KISSINGER

At this point, eager to turn its attention

back to Vietnam and the home front,

the Johnson administration delegated

matters to the Swedish diplomat

Gunnar Jarring, serving as the 

special representative for negotiating a

deal. Unfortunately, the talks quickly

broke down over the irreconcilable

interpretations o Resolution 242. The

United States and Israel called for

direct negotiations between the bellig-

erents over the terms o… a settlement,

while the Soviet Union and its Arab

allies insisted on an Israeli commitment

to full withdrawal as a precondition for

return for recognizing Israel within

secure boundaries and ending the violence.

After months o… talks, U.S. negotiators

convinced the Soviets to accept some-

thing close, and the result became the

famous formula enshrined in  Security

Council Resolution 242, a call for the

“withdrawal o Israeli armed forces from

territories occupied in the recent con‰ict.”

The wording was deliberately am-

biguous. The Arab states later insisted

that the sentence meant that Israel must

immediately withdraw from “all o… the”

territories occupied, but the Americans

had taken pains to ensure that the

o‹cial text read only “from territories.”

The United States had demanded

language that clearly supported its policy:

bilateral negotiations between Israel and

each o… the belligerent states would

From his lips to God’s ears: Trump at the Western Wall, May 2017

JONATHAN

ERNST / REUTERS

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