Contacts with the Kennedys

I never worked on Ted Kennedy's staff when I was on Capitol Hill, and the only contact I had with him was probably at various AIPAC events in Washington, D.C, like this one pictured years ago. My real contact with the Kennedys was with members of Robert's family when I researched Bobby Kennedy's visit to Palestine in April 1948.

But there were two connections with Ted Kennedy worth noting.

By 1979, there was wide-spread dissatisfaction with President Jimmy Carter, especially within the Jewish community over his Israel policy (yes, already then). I must admit that my dear Aunt Louise, of blessed memory, warned me about Carter. "I grew up in the South [Louisiana], and you can't trust that southern cracker," she said in 1976 when I believed anyone would be better than Gerald Ford.

There was a groundswell of support for Ted Kennedy to challenge the incumbent president. (I still have the campaign button, "Roast Jimmy's Nuts.") Winning the Jewish community's vote was vital to Kennedy's chances, especially in the New York and California primaries.

Around that time I was in graduate school in Washington and, as luck would have it, taking a course on "Elections and Campaigns" taught by a Kennedy advisor. My thesis -- all theoretical, of course -- was a campaign plan for an unnamed candidate seeking to garner Jewish voters in a large state.

Kennedy won California, and I got an A.


Mrs. Kennedy and Lebanon

The other occasion was in the late 1990s when I was serving in the Israeli Embassy in Washington. As discretely as possible, Kennedy wanted to know if it were safe for him to visit Lebanon. Few people were aware that Victoria -- "Vicky" -- Reggie, his second wife, is the descendant of Lebanese Maronites on both parents' sides. They wanted to visit the "homeland" and see her family's roots.

My immediate response, confirmed by others I checked with, was that he should definitely not visit Lebanon. He was just too high a profile, a huge prize to various Middle East groups that would want to harm him or abduct him. The fact that his brother Bobby had been assassinated by a Palestinian because of his support for Israel only increased the danger, I explained.

That he turned to someone at the Israeli Embassy for such advice is indicative of the trust and friendship he showed to Israel throughout his career.

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