MC_2006_Spring_29
5/9/06
3:18 PM
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Peace in the Middle East Ambassador John T. McCarthy ’61 of the U.S. Foreign Service discusses the future of Israel and Palestine at the fall Horan Lecture William Marshall ’67, partner at Zeichner Ellman & Krause, Ambassador John T. McCarthy ’61, the evening’s guest speaker, and Peter Heller, professor of government, at the Horan Lecture in December.
Middle East, including carrying on an official dialogue with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and gave his thoughts on what the future might hold for the embattled region.
Retired Ambassador John T. McCarthy ’61 was born and raised in New York City, but his career with the United States Foreign Service has taken him around the world. Tunisia, Lebanon, Belgium, Pakistan and Thailand are just a few of the places he’s lived and worked. During the course of a 33-year career with the Foreign Service as a consultant on embassy efficiency and security and a board member and chairman of international children’s charity Save the Children, McCarthy has made himself at home in any number of foreign cultures. And it was the liberal arts curriculum here at the College, he said, that taught him how. “I found that I had a great foundation for understanding where other people where coming from and how other societies worked, and [for that], I owe a real debt of gratitude to Manhattan,” he said. McCarthy delivered the lecture Israel and Palestine, What Next? at the Horan Lecture, held in December at the University Club in downtown Manhattan. Speaking before a group of 50 distinguished alumni, guests and faculty, the retired ambassador spoke about his experiences serving in the
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McCarthy joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1962, only a few months after his graduation from Manhattan with a B.A. in history and political science. He served as the American ambassador to Lebanon from 1988 to 1990, at the end of Lebanon’s civil war; as economic counselor at the American Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium; director of the department’s Office of Investment; deputy assistant secretary of state for public affairs and the deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan; and senior inspector in the Office of the Inspector General. From 1991 to 1994, he served as ambassador to Tunisia, where he carried on an official dialogue with P.L.O. head Arafat. McCarthy also holds an M.P.A. from Harvard University, and, in 2000, the College awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at its Fall Honors Convocation. Addressing the crowd before dinner, and then fielding questions during dessert and coffee, McCarthy, who has, he noted, been a guest at previous Horan lectures, said that with Israel and Palestine sharing such a small physical space, the two countries will eventually have to find a way to coexist peacefully. As key players from the old regimes are replaced by a new generation of younger leaders, he said, there may be a chance for “people of good faith” and leaders “of vision” to help steer the region toward peace.
“For me, history is individual. It is men and women who basically make the difference,” he said. McCarthy also said that while he sees a definite role for the United States in guiding the process, he cautioned that the U.S. would be naïve to think that it can make peace in the Middle East. “The way it seems to work in that part of the world is that unless the U.S. president is involved, and is deeply involved, not enough happens,” he said. “I don’t mean we can make the peace in the Middle East. I think that’s wrong.” He continued, “I think the U.S. government can facilitate solutions when the people involved really are ready for them, but we can’t impose solutions on people so directly concerned.” To conclude his lecture, McCarthy said that, in his experience, the inhabitants of Israel are looking to live where their existence as a nation is accepted, and he believes that there is enough Arab support for it to eventually happen. With vision and U.S. leadership, he said, as well as “lots of luck,” McCarthy thinks the peace process will continue to move forward, no matter how slowly. “It’s hard to remain optimistic about the Middle East because [peace] seems to takes so long,” he said. “But nonetheless, there are enough steps forward to give you the steps back.”