Interviews | Page 2 of 2

Saunders: Ken Stein Interview With Dr. Harold Saunders, Washington, D.C.

From 1961 until the early 1980s, Harold Saunders was a key US State Department bureaucrat, an enormously capable word-smith. He had his hand in drafting the 1974-1975 ARab-Israeli Disengagement Agreements, Camp David Accords and E-I Treaty. His memory for detail enabled consequential decision-makers to understand the historical context of events and ideas such as ‘land for peace,’ ‘territorial integrity,’ ‘legitimate rights,’ and a myriad of diplomatic promises made spanning multiple presidencies.

Interviews|May 12, 1992

Shaath: Ken Stein Interview With Nabil Shaath, PLO Adviser, Arlington, VA

Nabil Shaath was a close adviser to Arafat particularly in the tumultuous 1998-1993 period when the PLO was buffeted by events and bad choices. Shaath praised Secretary Baker, President Bush and Yitzhak Rabin, and was pleased that Palestinians were participating in the Madrid Conference. He hoped for an end to the conflict with Israel in 1992, based on land for peace but held out for the right of Palestinian return for that to happen. In 2023 he is a foreign policy adviser to Mahmoud Abbas.

Interviews|October 30, 1992

Siegel: Ken Stein Interview With Carter Jewish Liaison Mark Siegel, Washington, D.C.

As a Democratic Party operative, Mark Siegel astutely helped Jimmy Carter win the 1976 election. He assisted in delegate selection and on the platform committee and kept Eugene MaCarthy’s name off the New York ballot. In the White House, as the administration’s liaison to the Jewish community, he abruptly resigned for being lied to by the administration. He explains Brzezinski/Carter disappointment with Sadat’s historic 1977 trip to Jerusalem because it channeled Arab-Israeli negotiations into a bilateral pathway. With that, the Brzezinski/Carter fear was realized. Any hope of Palestinian self-determination and Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank/Gaza Strip would be endlessly postponed in favor of Egyptian-Israeli national interests. He is frank in his descriptions of the ineptitude of those who worked in the Carter White House.

Interviews|July 21, 2010

Sisco: Ken Stein Interview With Joseph Sisco, Washington, D.C.

Ambassador Joseph Sisco was an integral member of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s team that put together three military disengagement agreements after the October 1973 War. Sisco has high praise for Sadat’s wisdom and courage and insight in working with Kissinger to turn Egypt away from Moscow and into agreements with Israel.

Interviews|February 27, 1992

Sterner: Ken Stein Interviews with Ambassador Michael Sterner, Washington, D.C.

In the 1970s, US State Department Ambassador Michael Sterner was privy to Sadat’s preference for step-by-step diplomacy PRIOR to the 1973 October War. He is critical of the Carter administration for being too satisfied with only a bilateral Egyptian-Israeli Agreement.

Interviews|May 13, 1992 and June 17, 1993

Tamir: Ken Stein Interview With General Abrasha Tamir, Tel Aviv, Israel

Tamir was a 35-year veteran of the Israeli army, attending all Egyptian-Israeli negotiations as a strategic planner. He stated that he thought the 1973 war could have been averted if Golda Meir had responded to Sadat’s pre-war overtures. He credits Henry Kissinger’s negotiating successes of the post-1973-war period as laying the basis for the successful 1978 and 1979 Egyptian-Israeli agreements.

Interviews|November 14, 1992

Theros: Ken Stein Interview With Patrick Theros, Atlanta, Georgia

From the vantage points of Amman and Damascus in the 1970s and 1980s, Patrick Theros heard the sharp political opinions deeply felt about the United States and the profound anger voiced by Arafat, Jordan’s King Hussein and Syria’s President Assad for each other.

Interviews|March 31, 1993

Using Transcripts, Interviews and Conference Proceedings to Write History

In writing history, documents and primary texts are reliably accurate. Veracity can emerge by crosschecking sources. However, if all we have is one shard of pottery from the second temple period, we must settle for it in isolation as evidence of how the pottery was constructed, its composition, use, etc. Unless of course, we are fortunate enough to have a text that describes the pottery piece, and we have the piece of pottery as evidence. When oral recollections are used to bolster the written text, subtle shades and emphatic dimensions provide colorful detail to historical writing. Unlike written records, oral evidence provides vignettes, opinions, hues, suppositions, and sentiments almost always absent in a document.

Conference Proceedings, Interviews, Transcripts|March 18, 2020

Veliotes: Ken Stein Interview With Nicholas A. Veliotes, Washington, D.C.

With a keen memory to detail, Nicholas Veliotes engaged an array of American and Middle Eastern political leaders. This interview is laced with charming and enthusiastic candor as he served in American diplomatic positions from 1973 to 1986 in Tel Aviv, Washington, Amman and Cairo. He was present when sensitive U.S. policies were debated and operationalized. His assessments of Kissinger, Sadat, Meir, Nixon, King Hussein, Brzezinski, Carter, Vance and a whole panoply of Israeli officials bubble with content; the vignettes he shares about Nixon and Brzezinski are priceless. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Veliotes, along with Morris Draper, Hermann Eilts, American consuls general in Jerusalem and other U.S. officials failed in repeated attempts to secure PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s participation in the diplomatic process.

Interviews|September 7, 1995

Weiss: Ken Stein Interview With Rabbi Avi Weiss, Riverdale, New York

As a political activist, Rabbi Avi Weiss recollects with keen candor the incidents from 1978 to 1980 in which he personally confronted President Jimmy Carter for what he viewed as his definitive anti-Israeli comments and actions.

Interviews|September 17, 2008

U.S. and Israel