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Henry Siegman is a German-born American nonfiction writer and a journalist specializing in the Middle East policy towards Israel, and a visiting professor at the University of London. He is a former Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to that, he was the Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress (1978-1994). He frequently appeared on Charlie Rose to comment on Israel related topics and contributed to the International Herald Tribune, the Financial Times, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times and other publications.

Early life and education

Siegman was born in 1930 in Frankfurt, Germany which he fled with his family in 1933 to Antwerp, Belgium, and then to the United States. In America, he studied at Yeshiva College (BA Math) and New School for Social Research. He was ordained as an Orthodox Rabbi by Yeshiva University. He served as a chaplain in the Korean War, where he was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.

Siegman's opinions

Siegman is a frequent critic of the Israeli policies in the West Bank. Former Israel ambassador to the United States Itamar Rabinovich identified his views as similar to that of Meretz's left wing. Siegman supports the two-state solution and the moral equivalence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He advocates engagement with Hamas and recently visited Khaled Mashal, Hamas leader exiled in Syria. He says that Yasser Arafat made a "disastrous mistake" in rejecting the peace offer, but claims that "based on my 14 years of dealings with Arafat, I reject the notion that he was bent on Israel's destruction." Siegman is sharply critical of Ariel Sharon, about whom he wrote: "The war Sharon is waging is not aimed at the defeat of Palestinian terrorism but at the defeat of the Palestinian people and their aspirations for national self-determination." He strongly defended former president Jimmy Carter's book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. He also sharply criticized the ongoing peace efforts by Ehud Olmert and George W. Bush. Siegman has described the process as a “scam” because of a “consensus reached long ago by Israel’s decision-making elites that Israel will never allow the emergence of a Palestinian state”. Writing in the London Review of Books, Siegman states:

The Middle East peace process may well be the most spectacular deception in modern diplomatic history. Since the failed Camp David summit of 2000, and actually well before it, Israel’s interest in a peace process – other than for the purpose of obtaining Palestinian and international acceptance of the status quo – has been a fiction that has served primarily to provide cover for its systematic confiscation of Palestinian land and an occupation whose goal, according to the former IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon, is ‘to sear deep into the consciousness of Palestinians that they are a defeated people’.

The Ya’alon quotation cited by Siegman above was reported to be unverifiable by the New York Times, and did not appear in the interview where he is usually attributed to have said it. The fabricated quotation is traced by some to journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave, ; and by others to Siegman, neither of whom provided a citation. A citation was apparently first provided by historian Rashid Khalidi in his 2004 book Resurrecting Empire, to an interview in Ha’aretz where, according to the New York Times, the quote cannot be found. What Ya’alon actually said in the cited interview was: “The facts that are being determined in this confrontation - in terms of what will be burned into the Palestinian consciousness - are fateful. If we end the confrontation in a way that makes it clear to every Palestinian that terrorism does not lead to agreements, that will improve our strategic position. On the other hand, if their feeling at the end of the confrontation is that they can defeat us by means of terrorism, our situation will become more and more difficult.”

Siegman's works and opinions received a widespread recognition in the media. Radio Free Europe calls him "a leading U.S. expert on the Middle East." Jewish daily The Forward credits him for publicizing the "Saudi plan". Journalist David Rieff calls him "the most perceptive American observer-participant in the last two decades of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations."

References

1. Brief biography at The International Herald Tribune website.
2. Henry Siegman's biography, on the Council on Foreign Relations website.
3. Brief biography at the Euro|topics magazine.
4. Separating Spiritual and Political, He Pays a Price, by Chris Hedges, The New York Times, June 13, 2002.
5. New Jewish Lobby Counters Neocons, by Ralph Seliger.
6. What will happen after Bush? by Itamar Rabinovich, Haaretz, October 29, 2007.
7. Is 'moral equivalency' really so wrong? by Henry Siegman, Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2006 (from CFR website)
8. Hamas: The Last Chance for Peace? by Henry Siegman, The New York Review of Books, April 27, 2006.
9. The Hamas factor by Robert Malley and Henry Siegman, The International Herald Tribune, December 27, 2006.
10. Hamas and Gaza Emerge Reshaped After Takeover by Ethan Bronner, June 15, 2008.
11. Yasir Arafat, Father and Leader of Palestinian Nationalism, Dies at 75 by Judith Miller, The New York Times, November 11, 2004.
12. Sharon's Phony War by Henry Siegman, The New York Review of Books, December 18, 2003.
13. Hurricane Carter by Henry Siegman, The Nation, January 4, 2007.
14. The Great Middle East Peace Process Scam by Henry Siegman, The London Review of Books, 16 August 2007.
15. ^ The Great Middle East Peace Process Scam Henry Siegman, London Review of Books, 16 August 2007
16. Middle East: Will Israel's Killing Of Hamas Leader Affect U.S. Policy? by Jeffrey Donovan, Radio Free Europe, March 23, 2004.
17. Saudis Push Bush Team On Peace Plan by Nathan Guttman, The Forward, January 19, 2007.
18. Arafat Among the Ruins by David Rieff, The New York Times, April 25, 2004.

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• 1930 births
• American Jewish Congress
• American journalists
• American political writers
• Council on Foreign Relations
• American Jews
• Living people
• Recipients of the Bronze Star Medal
• Recipients of the Purple Heart medal
• Yeshiva University alumni
• The New School alumni
• American military personnel of the Korean War
• Military chaplains