As talks of impeachment (mostly from Democrats for the moment) are beginning invade the media, both the traditional and social kind, focusing on accusations against President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice, it is interesting to recall, on the eve of Trump’s visit to Israel, that the last (and only) US president who resigned from office did it only six weeks following his own first and only visit to Israel.
President Richard Milhous Nixon visited Israel from June 16-17, 1974. It was not only his own first and only visit to the Jewish State, but the first ever visit of any American President there.
Official press announcements (source: Jewish Virtual Library) at the time declared the President’s visit “symbolizes the unique relationship, the common heritage and the close and historic ties, that have long existed between the United States and Israel.”
But a mere six weeks later, on August 8, 1974, President Nixon informed the American people from his White House desk that he was resigning from office.
History loves to dish out these delicious tidbits, and nothing is more tasty than a comparison between a current sitting president troubled by constitutional issues taking time out of his busy schedule to visit the Jewish State – 43 summers after another sitting president, troubled by constitutional issues, had done the exact same thing.
But wait, there’s more: last week, hours after firing FBI Director James Comey for refusing to stop investigating him, President Donald Trump met with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office. And 43 years earlier, on the evening of August 7, 1974, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger informed President Nixon that his Administration thought he should resign “in the national interest.”
Makes you think, right?
As foreign visits to the Jewish State go, the Nixon excursion had gone pretty well. The President met with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and “held extensive and cordial talks on matters of mutual interest to the United States and Israel, and reviewed the excellent relations between their two countries.”
OK, here it comes: “They discussed, in a spirit of mutual understanding, the efforts of both countries to achieve a just and lasting peace which will provide security for all States in the area, and the need to build a structure of peace in the world.”
Also: “President Nixon and Prime Minister Rabin agreed that peace and progress in the Middle East are essential if global peace is to be assured. Peace will be achieved through a process of continuing negotiations between the parties concerned, as called for by UN Security Council Resolution 338 of October 22, 1973.”
Finally, this is quite touching, for real: “The Prime Minister and the President agreed that the cordiality of Israel’s reception of the President reflected the long friendship between Israel and the United States and pledged their continued energies to nurture and strengthen that friendship. To this end, the President invited Prime Minister Rabin to pay an early visit to Washington.”