Source: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/081206.html
Israeli Leaders Fault Bush on War
By Robert Parry
August 13, 2006
Amid the political and diplomatic fallout from
Israels faltering invasion of Lebanon, some Israeli
officials are privately blaming President George W.
Bush for egging Prime Minister Ehud Olmert into the
ill-conceived military adventure against the Hezbollah
militia in south Lebanon.
Bush conveyed his strong personal support for the
military offensive during a White House meeting with
Olmert on May 23, according to sources familiar with
the thinking of senior Israeli leaders.
Olmert, who like Bush lacks direct wartime experience,
agreed that a dose of military force against Hezbollah
might damage the guerrilla groups influence in
Lebanon and intimidate its allies, Iran and Syria,
countries that Bush has identified as the chief
obstacles to U.S. interests in the Middle East.
As part of Bushs determination to create a new
Middle East one that is more amenable to U.S.
policies and desires Bush even urged Israel to
attack Syria, but the Olmert government refused to go
that far, according to Israeli sources.
One source said some Israeli officials thought Bushs
attack-Syria idea was nuts since much of the world
would have seen the bombing campaign as overt
aggression.
In an article on July 30, the Jerusalem Post referred
to Bushs interest in a wider war involving Syria.
Israeli defense officials told the Post last week
that they were receiving indications from the US that
America would be interested in seeing Israel attack
Syria, the newspaper reported.
While balking at an expanded war into Syria, Olmert
did agree on the need to show military muscle in
Lebanon as a prelude to facing down Iran over its
nuclear program, which Olmert has called an
existential threat to Israel.
With U.S. forces bogged down in Iraq, Bush and his
neoconservative advisers saw the inclusion of Israeli
forces as crucial for advancing a strategy that would
punish Syria for supporting Iraqi insurgents, advance
the confrontation with Iran and isolate Hezbollah in
Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
But the month-long war has failed to achieve its goals
of destroying Hezbollah forces in south Lebanon or
intimidating Iran and Syria.
Instead, Hezbollah guerrillas fought Israeli troops to
a virtual standstill in villages near the border and
much of the world saw Israels bombing raids across
Lebanon which killed hundreds of civilians as
disproportionate.
Now, as the conflict winds down, some Israeli
officials are ruing the Olmert-Bush pact on May 23 and
fault Bush for pushing Olmert into the conflict.
Building Pressure
Soon after the May 23 meeting in Washington, Israel
began to ratchet up pressure on the Hamas-led
government in the Palestinian territories and on
Hezbollah and other Islamic militants in Lebanon. As
part of this process, Israel staged low-key attacks in
both Lebanon and Gaza. [For details, see
Consortiumnews.com A Pretext War in Lebanon.]
The tit-for-tat violence led to the Hamas seizure of
an Israeli soldier on June 24 and then to Israeli
retaliatory strikes in Gaza. That, in turn, set the
stage for Hezbollahs attack on an Israeli outpost and
the capture of two more Israeli soldiers on July 12.
Hezbollahs July 12 raid became the trigger that Bush
and Olmert had been waiting for. With the earlier
attacks unknown or forgotten, Israel and the U.S.
skillfully rallied international condemnation of
Hezbollah for what was called an unprovoked attack and
a kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.
Behind the international criticism of Hezbollah, Bush
and Olmert justified an intense air campaign against
Lebanese targets, killing civilians and destroying
much of Lebanons commercial infrastructure. Israeli
troops also crossed into southern Lebanon with the
intent of delivering a devastating military blow
against Hezbollah, which retaliated by firing Katyusha
rockets into Israel..
However, the Israeli operation was eerily reminiscent
of the disastrous U.S. invasion and occupation of
Iraq. Like the U.S. assault, Israel relied heavily on
shock and awe air power and committed an inadequate
number of soldiers to the battle.
Israeli newspapers have been filled with complaints
from soldiers who say some reservists werent issued
body armor while other soldiers found their equipment
either inferior or inappropriate to the battlefield
conditions.
Israeli troops also encountered fierce resistance from
Hezbollah guerrillas, who took a page from the Iraqi
insurgents by using explosive booby traps and ambushes
to inflict heavier than expected casualties on the
Israelis.
Channel 2 in Israel disclosed that several top
military commanders wrote a letter to Lt. Gen. Dan
Halutz, the chief of staff, criticizing the war
planning as chaotic and out of line with the combat
training of the soldiers and officers. [Washington
Post, Aug. 12, 2006]
One Israeli plan to use llamas to deliver supplies in
the rugged terrain of south Lebanon turned into an
embarrassment when the animals simply sat down.
Reporter Nahum Barnea, who traveled with an Israeli
unit in south Lebanon, compared the battle to the
famous Tom and Jerry cartoons with the powerful
Israeli military playing the role of the cat Tom and
the resourceful Hezbollah guerrillas playing the mouse
Jerry. In every conflict between them, Jerry wins,
Barnea wrote.
Olmert Criticized
Back in Israel, some leading newspapers have begun
calling for Olmerts resignation.
If Olmert runs away now from the war he initiated, he
will not be able to remain prime minister for even one
more day, the newspaper Haaretz wrote in a front-page
analysis. You cannot lead an entire nation to war
promising victory, produce humiliating defeat and
remain in power.
You cannot bury 120 Israelis in cemeteries, keep a
million Israelis in shelters for a month and then say,
Oops, I made a mistake. [See Washington Post, Aug.
12, 2006]
For his part, Bush spent July and early August fending
off international demands for an immediate cease-fire.
Bush wanted to give Olmert as much time as possible to
bomb targets across Lebanon and dislodge Hezbollah
forces in the south.
But instead of turning the Lebanese population against
Hezbollah as Washington and Tel Aviv had hoped the
devastation rallied public support behind Hezbollah.
As the month-long conflict took on the look of a
public-relations disaster for Israel, the Bush
administration dropped its resistance to international
cease-fire demands and joined with France in crafting
a United Nations plan for stopping the fighting.
Quoting a senior administration official with Bush
at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, the New York Times
reported that it increasingly seemed that Israel
would not be able to achieve a military victory, a
reality that led the Americans to get behind a
cease-fire. [NYT, Aug. 12, 2006]
But the repercussions from Israels failed Lebanon
offensive are likely to continue. Olmert must now
confront the political damage at home and the chief
U.S. adversaries in the Middle East may be emboldened
by the outcome, more than chastened.
As in the Iraq War, Bush has revealed again how
reliance on tough talk and military might can
sometimes undercut not build up U.S. influence in
the strategically important Middle East.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in
the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His
latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush
Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at
secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at
Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History:
Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'
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