When Israel Shot Down A Libyan Airliner In 1973, Richard Nixon Told Billy Graham The Jews Have A ‘Death Wish’

On February 23, 1973, the Israeli air force intentionally shot down a Libyan commercial airliner — Flight 114 — that had inadvertently gone off course and entered Israeli-controlled airspace over the Sinai Peninsula on the border of Egypt — but nowhere near Israel itself.

108 civilian passengers and crew were killed.

Like the Israeli attack on the U.S.S. Liberty in 1967, all evidence points to the fact that this was an intentional act of terror — that the Israeli fighter pilots — followed direct shoot down orders from IDF Chief of General Staff, David Elazar who knew this was a commercial airliner with civilians onboard — not a “suicide bomber” which the IDF spin doctors claimed after the fact.

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to conclude that the Israelis saw shooting down this unarmed airliner as an opportunity for some “payback” — in retaliation for the alleged Black September hostage killing of Israeli athletes at the Summer Olympics in Munich less than six months earlier.

This brazen act of terror created immediate international outrage against Israel — and became the topic of conversation that same day during a recorded private phone call between President Richard Nixon and his friend and confidant, evangelical pastor, Billy Graham. Both agreed that it was incidents like this senseless, self-destructive act of terror that create anti-Semitism — that by their own irresponsible actions, they have brought it down upon their own heads.

We are providing excerpts from the transcription of the telephone call here which focus on the “Jewish Question” — but you can read the full, unedited transcription here.

You can also listen to the audio file here — though the audio quality isn’t very clear in places.

[Clip]

Nixon: You know, we’ve got — we’ve still got the problem. Isn’t that a horrible thing — those Israelis shooting down that plane? I’ve just been raising the devil about that because, uh, I mean it was so stupid — it was so stupid — I mean, to shoot down an unarmed 707? Good heavens. That’s worse even than what they did at the Olympics — the other side.

Graham: Well, this will be an embarrassment for her [Golda Meir], coming her this week, won’t it ?

Nixon: Well I think it is, yes. But, on the other hand, it’s going to be her embarrassment — not ours. We didn’t do it. But we have to have her, of course. And, uh, she’s, uh — I’ve urged the Israelis — of course privately — that they ought not only to express condolences but to indicate that they’re going to pay reparations.

[CFT comment: Israel eventually did pay reparations, per Nixon’s request.]

Graham: Absolutely.

Nixon: They just — it’s just a terrible thing to have happen, because…

Graham: Things seemed to be moving a little bit better. At least that I read…

Nixon: Yes, and then — bing — they do this.

Graham: And, here Sadat was moving a little bit to the right — it seemed to me.

Nixon: Yes, now this’ll force him over again…

Graham: Yes, that’s right. It sure will.

Nixon: Yeah.

Graham: He’ll have to listen to these extremists on the left.

Nixon: Yeah. We… It’ll probably stir up for a few days. I don’t know, but we’ll… Anyway, we’re not going to be… we can’t be blamed for what everybody does. But, I must… and… with… Mrs. [Golda] Meir, we’re going have to talk pretty straight to her about this sort of thing… when she’s here.

Graham: Well…

Nixon: Now the Israelis, you see, what they do with a thing like this is they lose all of the support they have in the world, you know…

Graham: That’s right.

Nixon: We’re their only friends anyway, and I — no other country’s their friend anymore. And, now, this just raises, uh….Oh, it’s just terrible.

Graham: There’s two other points. One is, the front page of papers over the weekend carried the story that they’re talking about expelling all Christians from Israel.

Nixon: Oh, isn’t that nice.

Graham: And, uh, then the second point is that the Jews in this country are just raising a big… uh, uh… in speech after speech… now, for example, this morning the front page of the Atlanta Constitution, the third major story on the front page was a rabbi denouncing what is called “Key73".Key 73 is a combination of all the major denominations in the United States — including most Roman Catholics — for the first time, joining together in an evangelistic effort. [ Nixon chuckles ] And they are damning Campus Crusade and damning, so forth — and Rabbi [Marc] Tannenbaum is coming down here to see me this week about it. And, of course, they are never calling my name. Because they know…

Nixon: You’re their friend.

Graham: I’ve been their friend, and they know that — but, at the same time, they are going right after the church. And, and, there’s a great deal of feeling beginning to rise in areas where they’ve had great friendship.

Nixon: What’ll happen out of this… If they don’t… You know… the, uh… What I really think is that deep down in this country there is a lot of anti-Semitism and all this is going to do is stir it up.

Graham: It’s right under the surface.

Nixon: Oh boy.

Graham: …and right to the top.

Nixon: Yeah, that’s right.

[Clip]

Graham: And, uh, Rosy talked to me about the possibility of coming to the dinner for Mrs. [Golda] Meir. I don’t whether you know that they were inviting us, but I don’t know whether we should, whether you want us or not…

Nixon: Oh, sure, sure, you should come…

Graham: …the, uh, dinner, but of course if we’re invited we’ll be…

Nixon: Sure…

Graham: …able to come.

Nixon: Sure. I, uh — this incident [Libyan airline bombing] — I don’t think is going to change that. I think we just have to go forward — we’re going to have the dinner — we have to — and I think your coming would be the right thing to do, right ?

Graham: It might be, because of this religious situation that’s coming up in the country.

Nixon: Right. But I would be very, very tough with uh, you know, all of our Jewish friends in here, and Marc Tannenbaum — you tell him he’s making a terrible mistake and that they’re going to get the darndest wave of anti-Semitism here if they don’t behave.

Graham: Well, that’s exactly right. And Marc Tannenbaum is probably the most outspoken and the most listened-to rabbi in America…

Nixon: Yeah…

Graham: …and he’s going to [be] down here this week. And he wrote, he wrote a letter to the New York Times defending me a few days ago. And, uh, he, uh, I think if we can swing him over to make some strong statements it’ll have a great effect…

Nixon: Right.

Graham: …he certainly is one of the cleverest and the most brilliant of the rabbis…

Nixon: Right, right…

Graham: …and, uh, it was very much for you this past time, you know, we tried to get him to lead the prayer group at the convention and he felt he couldn’t go quite that far.

Nixon: No — well, the thing that you’ve really got to emphasize to him though, Billy, is that this anti-Semitism is stronger than we think. You know, they just — it’s unfortunate, but this has happened to the Jews — it happened in Spain, it’s happened in Germany — it’s happening — and now it’s going to happen — in America if these people don’t start behaving.

Graham: Well, you know, I told you one time that the Bible talks about two kinds of Jews. One is called `the synagogue of Satan.’ They’re the ones putting out the pornographic literature — they’re the ones putting out these obscene films.

Nixon: Like the thing in Time Magazine. I…

Graham: It’s terrible…

Nixon: …and then Newsweek…

Graham: Ruth [Graham’s wife] canceled both of them.

Nixon: Good for her.

Graham: We won’t take Time or Newsweek…

Nixon: I’ll tell you, it’s a disgraceful thing — and I think — I think really they don’t deserve to live.

Graham: And for Time to come out, the week of your inauguration, with that thing, was so…

Nixon: That’s right…

Graham: ….unbelievable.

[CFT comment: Two days after Nixon’s second inauguration, instead of a cover story about the inauguration, Time magazine’s Jewish managing editor — Henry Grunwald — ran a cover featuring Marlon Brando and his new, pornographic X-rated movie, “Last Tango In Paris,” with the salacious byline, “Sex and Death in Paris.” No doubt, this was done to show Grunwald’s contempt for Nixon and the “silent majority” of white Christian voters who gave him a landslide victory over the Jews’ man, George McGovern. Grunwald waited until a week later for the next issue on January 29 to run a cover story of the inauguration.]

Nixon: Yeah, they… that’s the first time they’ve ever covered an inauguration without having it on the cover…

Graham: And [Time founder] Henry Luce would turn over in his grave.

Nixon: I’ll say he would, I’ll say… well…

Graham: And they’re gonna to go the same way that Life [magazine] went.

Nixon: They will unless they start, uh, shaping up.

Graham: I was talking to [ ? ], he was down there taking a vacation while we were, and he was telling me about the great amount of advertising that Time has lost over the thing.

Nixon: They really have.

Graham: That’s what he said.

Nixon: Well, they deserve it, they deserve it. The advertisers ought to be sick about this sort of thing…

[Clip]

Nixon: Well, we’ll see you then next — uh — is it Wednesday or Thursday, or I guess, Thursday?

Graham: Thursday, I believe she told me.

Nixon: Uh huh. Thursday. I guess. Right. Thursday. Well, we’ll try to make her. Uh, we’ll — we’ll let her feel all right. But, boy I’ll tell you, privately, you’ve got to be very strong with these people [the Jews].

Graham: We’re going to have a real care-letting with Rabbi Tanenbaum and find out exactly… And he — he’s — I think basically — is our friend. And I want to…

Nixon: You could point out this — that there’s nothing that I want to do more than to be, I mean, not only a friend of Israel but the friend of the Jews in this country, but that — that I have to turn back a terrible tide here if they don’t get a hold of it themselves. And, uh — and it’s up to them.

Graham: And they better understand it — and understand it quick…

Nixon: Yeah, because there are — there are elements in this country — no, not just the Birchers — but a lot of reasonable people are now getting awful sick of it.

Graham: They really are.

Nixon: Don’t you think so ?

Graham: The — in the church too. I think what has happened in the church in the last two months, is almost — uh — they’ve almost, uh…These denominational leaders, I’m amazed. They are shaken by all this because they’ve been so pro-Jewish.

Nixon: Sure.

Graham: And the people that have been the most pro-Israel are the ones that are being attacked now by the Jews. And then they’re coming…

Nixon: Can’t figure it out…

Graham: …they’re going to kick all Christians out of Israel now is — is unbelievable.

Nixon: Cant’ figure it out — can’t figure it out. Well, it may be they have a death wish. You know, that’s been the problem with our Jewish friends for centuries.

Graham: Well they’ve always been, through the Bible, at least, “God’s Timepiece” — and he has judged them from generation to generation…

Nixon: Yeah.

Graham: …and, uh — and yet used them yet — and they’ve kept their identity…

Nixon: Right.

Graham: …and one of the things they’re terribly afraid of is so many of these Jewish young people are turning away from Judaism…

Nixon: Yeah.

Graham: …and turning away from Jewishness. They’re saying they’re Jews, but they’re becoming followers of Jesus. Well that’s just scaring them to death.

Nixon: [chuckles] I see.

Graham: You see they’ve set up — they’ve set up all over the country these Jews for Jesus at the various universities.

Nixon: Good.

Graham: They said they’re remaining Jews but they believe that Jesus was treated wrongly. And, uh, they’re — and this is frightening Jewish leaders and they’re overreacting in this country. [Nixon sighs deeply] I’m talking about the rabbis…

Nixon: Oh, I know. Sure. Sure. The professionals. But they’re — they’re like the Episcopalians. Uh, they’re losing….any appeal with their own people…

[End Clip]