With ‘shuttle diplomacy,’ step by step, Kissinger chased the possible in the Mideast

By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press Writer

LONDON (AP) — Henry Kissinger’s legacy in the Mideast is the pursuit of what’s possible, not necessarily peace, in one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. The former U.S. secretary of state, who died this week at age 100, did just that after Egypt and Syria pulled off a surprise invasion of Israel 50 years ago. Using “shuttle diplomacy” to haggle in-person with the leaders of the states in conflict, he negotiated different borders and a process to protect them. His biographer, former United States ambassador Martin Indyk, says in a Washington Post column that Kissinger would advise Israel’s Arab neighbors to maintain order in the Gaza Strip and give the Palestinians the “attributes of statehood” — with a two-state solution possible, someday.