Appearing at an Israeli Embassy reception last Thursday to mark the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state, Vice President Cheney voiced a sentiment that is common among many American Jews, evangelicals and others. "Israel has never had a better friend in the White House than the 43rd president of the United States," he said.
Yet as President Bush prepares to return to Jerusalem this week to celebrate the milestone, that assessment is the subject of fierce debate both here and Israel. Few doubt the sincerity of Bush's passion, which has translated into unprecedented backing for Israeli self-defense and the most clearly stated presidential commitment to protect Israel if it is attacked.
But from left to right, Bush also faces criticism for pursuing Middle East policies that, many diplomats and analysts believe, have left Israel more threatened than when he assumed office in January 2001.
"The sum total is that if you measure Israeli security at the beginning of this administration and at the end of the administration, based on things the president either could have done, should have done or failed to do, the report card is pretty negative," said Daniel C. Kurtzer, who served as Bush's first-term ambassador to Israel.
Kurtzer, who now advises Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, cites, in part, what he sees as Bush's neglect of the peace process for most of his seven years in office. Despite the president's optimism that he can achieve a Palestinian-Israeli deal in his final year, Kurtzer and other analysts think Israel remains far from peace with its neighbors.
Meanwhile, the Israeli defense establishment is having second thoughts about Bush's decision to remove Saddam Hussein and the botched occupation of Iraq. Those policies, some argue, have helped fuel the rise of Israel's nemesis, Iran, whose president has spoken openly of trying to wipe Israel off the map. The war has also threatened to destabilize neighboring Jordan with a flood of refugees.
At first glance, the Iraq invasion "looked as if it would serve Israel's interest," said Shlomo Brom, a retired general and former director of strategic planning for the Israel Defense Forces. But "the way that it was implemented by this administration is eventually causing damage to Israel. It is strengthening the radical elements in the Middle East."
Brom concluded: "People are mistaken to think that the most friendly president is also the best president that Israel has ever had."
During a briefing for reporters last week, national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley rejected such criticism. He said Hussein's ouster, the peace talks, Bush's support for Israel's self-defense and a greater Arab willingness to accept the Jewish state have been a boon for Israel.
"The violence, the intifada, is now dramatically down; violence against Israeli civilians [is] dramatically down," he said. "A major strategic threat to Israel has been removed, and there is a real opportunity, both with Palestinians and with Arab states more generally, for a peace."
Hadley added: "That's not a bad seven years' work."
Salai Meridor, Israel's ambassador to the United States, said it is unfair to blame Bush for not containing or bringing about a peace settlement. The latter, he said, has been undermined by the Palestinians' inability, until recently, to find leaders who are genuine partners with Israel.
"Looking retrospectively, I seriously doubt there could have been anything achieved, even if the administration had brought all its efforts into this area," he said in an interview.
Israel remains the preeminent military power in the Middle East. It has nuclear weapons, strong conventional forces and the capability to strike at will, as it did in September when it destroyed what it believed to be a Syrian nuclear facility.
Last year, Israel signed a 10-year, $30 billion arms deal with Washington aimed at keeping that edge for years to come. Support for Israel's security from across the U.S. political spectrum appears "unshakable," as Obama put it in his own appearance at the Israeli Embassy celebration Thursday.
Still, Bush's approach to strengthening the U.S.-Israeli relationship has been unique -- and perhaps surprising to the Israelis, given their tense relations with his father, President George H.W. Bush, over West Bank settlements and other issues. The younger Bush came to power in 2001 with a basic sympathy to the Jewish state, nourished by a famous 1998 trip to Israel as Texas governor in which he was given a helicopter tour of the tiny country by then-Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon.
By the account of aides and those on the trip with him, the visit impressed Bush with a firsthand sense of Israel's tenuous security.
Once in office, Bush came to believe that the aggressive approach to brokering peace pursued by President Bill Clinton was a mistake--both because the United States could not, in his view, impose a solution on the two sides and because he believed Yasir Arafat to be an untrustworthy interlocutor for the Palestinians.
Bush moved early on to shun Arafat and to make clear he would deal with the Palestinians only if they put forward leaders "not compromised" by terrorism. The move was controversial, but Bush aides argued that it allowed the revival of a peace process late in his term, after Arafat died and was replaced by Mahmoud Abbas.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Bush also identified Israel as a bulwark of his anti-terrorism efforts and showed complete sympathy for any steps Israel considered necessary to protect itself, even those criticized by the rest of the world. His strong support, during a four-year campaign of suicide bombings by Palestinian militants, cemented the affection many Israelis now feel for Bush -- and secured the admiration of leading Jewish groups in the United States.
"He increasingly became convinced that democracy is the ultimate tonic to the issues that plagued the Middle East," former White House adviser Dan Bartlett said. "The one true democracy that is a friend of ours is Israel."
But the commitment to democracy has had a price. Bush pressed Israel to allow elections in the Palestinian territories, which led to unexpected victories by Hamas, considered a terrorist group by both Israel and the United States.
Hamas, with the backing of Iran, has since seized power in Gaza and has repeatedly fired rockets into southern Israel. "Now Iran is on Israel's border," said Martin S. Indyk, a former ambassador to Israel.
Over the course of his administration, Bush has enjoyed warm relations with two Israeli prime ministers, including the present leader, Ehud Olmert, who has lavishly praised him and his policies. But Olmert's predecessor, Sharon, obtained perhaps Bush's biggest concession to Israel: a 2004 letter that made explicit the U.S. view that Israel should not have to return to its pre-1967 borders.
The letter has been widely interpreted in Israel as a green light to construct settlements in part of the occupied territory that Israel hopes to retain in final negotiations with the Palestinians on the contours of a new state.
The fear among many conservatives is that a final peace deal now sought by Bush could compromise these commitments. Dore Gold, a onetime adviser to Sharon and former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, said it is too early to know the Bush administration's impact on Israel.
"If that agreement divides Jerusalem and strips Israel of defensible borders, then many will wonder about what precisely was the Bush legacy," Gold said.
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