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June 5, 1968 was the first anniversary of the beginning of the Six-Day War. It was also the day, when Robert F. Kennedy was murdered. As Michael R. Fischbach wrote in Daily Star (Lebanon) "The Kennedy assassination was the first case of Middle Eastern “terrorism” on American soil ­ decades before the 1993 and 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, and before Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda became household names."

The beginning of the end

In April 1948 Robert F. Kennedy worked as a reporter for The Boston Post. Kennedy, then twenty-two years old, was assigned to report on the situation under the British Mandate of Palestine. He traveled to Palestine just a month before Israel declared independence. The impressions he got from the trip made Kennedy a strong supporter of Israel for the rest of his life and probably determined his destiny.

Robert Kennedy's oldest daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, thought the evidence showed that her father’s support for Israel was the main reason for his assassination by an Arab terrorist, Sirhan Sirhan, who did not try to hide that he was enraged by Israel’s victory in Six-Day War and by Kennedy's support for the Jewish state. Just a year after the Israeli victory Sirhan wrote: "My determination to eliminate R.F.K. is becoming the more and more of an unshakable obsession...Kennedy must die before June 5th".

Robert Kennedy’s father, Joseph P. Kennedy, was thought by some to have made antisemitic remarks, but in spite of that apparent bias, Joseph P. Kennedy appears to have supported Robert's views on a Jewish state; such as that a Jewish state could became a "stabilizing factor" in the region. He wrote:

The Arab world is made up of many disgruntled factions which would have been at each other’s throats long ago if it had not been for the common war against Zionism.

The dispatches

While in Palestine, Kennedy talked to members of the Irgun, to a former Soviet Army major, to a 23-year old girl who worked in propaganda services, and to a Haganah soldier. He became expressive while visiting a kibbutz. He wrote that the Jews have "an undying spirit" and said: "They will fight, and fight with unparalleled courage." At the same time he mentioned that Jews and Arabs working side by side in the orange groves and in the fields was a hopeful sign for the future of the region. Young Kennedy had a special gift for getting people to talk to him. He was mesmerized to learn that a Haganah soldier had shot his sister when he found out that she was not going to leave her British boyfriend. He was horrified when Arabs told him that they were going to poison the water supply of Jerusalem. It was clear to him that although the causes of Jews and Arabs were different, no side was going to compromise:

The die has long since been cast; the fight will take place. The Jews with their backs to the sea, fighting for their very homes, with 101 percent morale, will accept no compromise. On the other hand, the Arabs say: "We shall bring Moslem brigades from Pakistan, we shall lead a religious crusade for all loyal followers of Mohammed, we shall crush forever the invader. Whether it takes three months, three years, or 30, we will carry on the fight. Palestine will be Arab. We shall accept no compromise."

In one of his unpublished remarks he complained that US Zionists only harm the cause with their speeches because they do not spend enough time in the region. He was impressed with the "new" Jews he discovered in Palestine. Those were different Jews, not like the ones he used to know in the US. He wrote: "The Jewish people in Palestine who believe in and have been working toward this national state have become an immensely proud and determined people. It is already a truly great modern example of the birth of a nation with the primary ingredients of dignity and self-respect." but he also noted "However, the battle over Palestine was the result of an extraordinary endeavor: an attempt by some European Jewish leaders to implant a large Jewish community in Palestine - which necessarily implied their taking all or part of this land away from the Palestinian Arab people who had been living here for centuries".

On May 14, 1948 British Mandate ended.

The dispatches that Kennedy wrote in Palestine were published in The Boston Post on June 3, 4, 5 and 6, 1948. The first one, titled "BRITISH HATED BY BOTH SIDES", immediately attracted attention to the reports.

The following are quotes from Robert Kennedy's dispatches.

• "From a small village of a few thousand inhabitants, Tel Aviv has grown into a most impressive modern metropolis of over 200,000. They have truly done much with what all agree was very little..."
• "The Jews point with pride to the fact that over 500,000 Arabs, in the 12 years between 1932-1944, came into Palestine to take advantage of living conditions existing in no other Arab state..."

References

1. Mike Evans (May 7, 2007). "It's Foreign Policy, Stupid!". Jerusalem World News. Retrieved March 9, 2010. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
2. Michael R. Fischbach (June 3, 2003). "Robert Kennedy's murder: a missed opportunity for the US?". Daily Star, Lebanon. Retrieved March 9, 2010. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
3. ^ "This Kennedy was our friend". Jerusalem Post. April 4, 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
4. "Sirhan Bishara Sirhan Trial: 1969 - A Murder Plan".
5. Renehan 26-27; Leamer 136.
6. ^ Arthur Meier Schlesinger (2002). "Robert Kennedy and His Times". www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com. pp. 74–77. Retrieved March 9, 2010. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help) Cite error: The named reference "Robert Kennedy and His Times" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
7. ^ "Robert Kennedy's 1948 Reports from Palestine". www.jcpa.org. June 5, 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2010.

External Links

• On Bobby Kennedy's 40th Yahrzeit: Articles He Wrote from Palestine 60 Years Ago

• Robert F. Kennedy
• 1948 in Israel