When Bush learned of the ship’s seizure, he called Arafat and asked him to explain the shipment. Arafat acted as though he knew nothing about it. U.S. intelligence verified the Israeli account that Arafat’s ”money man” had paid for and arranged the arms shipment, so Bush knew that Arafat was lying to him. From that point on, the United States deemed Arafat ”compromised by terror,” and the administration began to push for his removal as leader of the PA.
Sharon has clearly understood the importance of being straight with Bush. For example, he promised that Arafat would not be harmed, and he has kept that promise throughout Israel’s military operations in the territories.
Triumphalism
Many people in the pro-Israel community feared the election of George W. Bush, expecting him to act like his father who was regarded as probably the most anti-Israel president in history. As it turns out, the son’s views are completely different from those of his father.
The elder Bush’s world-view was more pragmatic than ideological. He was guided in this by his secretary of state, James Baker, who viewed the Arab-Israeli conflict as a dispute that was no different from one between General Motors and the United Auto Workers. History, psychology, religion, geography — all key components of the conflict in the Middle East — were largely ignored by Bush and Baker. They believed the parties could be forced into a room together and pressured to come to an agreement. To their credit, they succeeded in bringing an unprecedented group of Arab leaders together with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir in Madrid in 1991, but that conference ultimately accomplished nothing substantive and their efforts were superseded by the Oslo agreements, which were negotiated without U.S. involvement and in reaction to the failures of the first Bush administration.
The younger Bush is much less like his father than like Ronald Reagan. He is an ideologue who sees the world in black and white, or, more accurately, as good and evil, and, because of his Christian beliefs, he trusts in the ultimate victory of the good. Like Reagan, who labeled the Soviet Union an “Evil Empire,” Bush has described an ”Axis of Evil” comprising North Korea, Iran, and Iraq, and routinely refers to terrorists as ”evildoers.”
The State Department typically pushes the president to use diplomacy to fight evil. Thus, for example, the argument is made that the way to end Palestinian terrorism is to pressure Israel to make political concessions. By contrast, Pentagon officials believe in using military force to stop terror and oppose compromises they believe will only stimulate more violence. Bush has generally gone along with the Pentagon view and therefore placed the onus on the Palestinians to stop the terrorism before requiring Israel to take any action.
Reagan had a gut-level, emotional attachment to Israel. He viewed it as a nation with similar Judeo-Christian values, and as an opponent of Communism. His successor had no such feelings toward Israel. If anything, he saw U.S. ties with Israel as complicating American strategic and economic interests in the Arab world. George W. Bush, however, shares more of Reagan’s religious and emotional attachment to Israel and clearly sees Israel as one of the ”good guys” that is fighting the battle with America against the evildoers.
Reagan’s critics accused him of being simple minded, deriding his Manichaean view of the world, and Bush’s detractors have attacked him in the same way. Whatever one may think of this worldview, it is important to understand it to appreciate the policies of President Bush.
Fraternity
President Bush has also been ridiculed because of his reputation as a beer guzzling, lightweight, fraternity brat who partied his way through Yale. Regardless of whether one accepts this characterization, it is relevant in the sense that it reflects Bush’s easygoing personal style and the way in which he relates to people.
