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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
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
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.
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.”