The vote itself was anticlimactic, coming three weeks after the close of my defense. He was also paranoid, telling me he was sure Rabin’s assassination was the result of betrayal by someone in his security service. When word got out about Mack, others also favored Leon for the job. His victory was a clear signal that Israelis saw in him what they had seen in his role model, Yitzhak Rabin: the possibility of peace with security.
He enjoyed the security of his beautiful marble palace and his daily routine in Damascus, and he couldn’t imagine taking the political risk of flying to Tel Aviv. I did visit with the Speaker and the congressional delegation, as a photograph of Newt, Bob Dole, and me talking on the plane showed. Sandy Berger joked that he was a little older than I, and since we had been through so much in almost thirty years of friendship he might as well go along to Pakistan for the ride. Moreover, I doubted there was much we could do, apart from reducing the leaks, to avoid the negative press coverage.
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