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In New Middle East, Tests for an Old Friendship
by Steven Erlanger
- Even before the American elections, a certain wariness had crept into the intimate friendship between Israel and the United States. The summer war in Lebanon produced questions in Washington about the competence of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
- Mr. Bush says his stance on Iran is unchanged: he will never accept a nuclear-armed Iran. Yet Israelis have been increasingly anxious about the Bush approach, seeing recently a tendency to delay confrontation through further negotiations.
- Senior Israeli officials know that Mr. Bush has a lot on his plate: a nuclear North Korea, a Democratic Congress, a weak approval rating and the bleeding of American power in Iraq. To win sanctions against Iran, he needs the support of Europe, Russia and China, all very critical of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.
- What matters most to Israel, officials here in Jerusalem say, is the level of support it receives from ordinary Americans, no matter their political party or religion. Despite the anxieties here over Lebanon, Iran and academic essays, opinion polls show that Americans are solidly in support of Israel, with new support coming from evangelical Christians. (New York Times)
Bush, Olmert Reading from Different Scripts
by Herb Keinon
- In what may emerge as a new theme in Washington, there are those gaining influence in the U.S. capital who argue that one way to get the moderate Arab states on the U.S. side is for Washington to do more to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
- One time-honored way to try to do this is to get Israel to make more concessions, perhaps more concessions now to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to strengthen him vis-a -vis Hamas and the extremists.
- The elections that swept the Republicans out of control of both the House and the Senate can be interpreted in many ways, but one thing is certain: They reflect a desire to lessen American military commitments abroad, not add to them.
- Bush has just nominated Robert Gates to replace Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Gates is known for advocating a new U.S. approach to Iran and Syria that would entail talking to both countries. (Jerusalem Post)
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A Meeting in Handcuffs for Ehud Olmert, George Bush
by Aluf Benn
- The Democratic victory in the Congressional elections, which has been interpreted as Bush's punishment for getting stuck in Iraq, has reduced the chances that the U.S. will attack Iran and has thus released Israel from the unbearably difficult decision of whether or not to attack Iran's nuclear installations itself.
- The Bush administration is signaling a revision of its foreign policy: It promised to coordinate its actions with the Democrats and to search for an exit strategy vis-a-vis Iraq.
- There is a price to pay for the political handcuffs restraining Bush and Olmert: Israel is growing closer to war with Iran and getting sucked deeper into the quicksand of Gaza.
- Various Israeli sources believe the State Department, headed by Condoleezza Rice, will try to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks and initiate measures that will win approval in Europe, the Arab world and the Democratic Congress.
- The U.S. will continue to support Israeli military operations in the territories while demanding more consideration for the Palestinians; and if a Palestinian unity government is created, it will look for a way to remove the restrictions on the PA. (Ha'aretz)
Apocalypse Now? Not for Bush
by Uri Dan
- The word in Israel is that Israel will have to pay the price of the Democratic victory in Congress, and that former U.S. secretary of state and Bush family confidant James Baker is striving to bring about a change in Iraq at Israel's expense in order to appease the "moderates" in the Arab world.
- The situation in the Middle East is too serious and dramatic to be abandoned to false rumors.
- My impression in Washington is that it is completely clear that both Democrats and Republicans want to get out of Iraq at the end of the process.
- But the impression from the White House, and also based on Olmert's press briefing following his meeting with Bush, is that the American president is a man of principle and will not run away from Iraq, but rather will attempt to stabilize the volcanic situation in a way that will guarantee the security of the moderate Arab states, and as a byproduct, that of Israel too.
- That is how it is now with the daring, courageous President Bush, and how it was with Churchill and Sharon. Bush is fighting the holy war of democracy and is not afraid to continue - using other means, with new ideas. But he is locked on to the target. (Jerusalem Post)
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