A PERSPECTIVE

BY: Jim Beer

Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 11:19 PM

My perspective is based on both actions and words.

That's because, in his Rose Garden speech, Bush said that the Palestinians needed leadership not compromised by terror, and then he embraced Mahmoud Abbas.

That doesn't mean everything he did was bad.

I agree with you about not meeting with Arafat, but what is more important is that he protected Arafat when Israel was ready to take him prisoner or kill him during the 2nd intifada.

With regard to Jenin, etc., his support of Israel was hardly vociferous - and he sent alot of mixed messages - calling for Israel to show restraint.

I think Bush actually denied Israel some bombs at the end of his term, as well as fly over rights over Iraq to bomb Iran

After routing Saddam in Iraq and having the jihadists back on their heels, he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory: the first thing he did was to pressure Israel into accepting the "road map."

And as I said, after 9/11 he gave into Colin Powell; trying to appease the Arabs at the expense of Israel by being the first President to call for a Palestinian state.

In his 2nd term, he abdicated his foreign policy leadership to Condi Rice and the State Department. Stood by while Rice pressured Israel into giving up the Philadelphia Corridor, compared Israel to Southern racists and Mahmoud Abbas to Martin Luther King, and praised the takeover of the Lebanese governement by Hezbollah, betraying his words in support of the Cedar Revolution.

Again tried to appease the Arabs at Israel's expense via the Annapolis process
He really set the bar low for Obama - making it easier for him to put the screws to Israel withour many people notcing much of a difference from Bush. I think Bush's heart was in the right place - he just didn't have the courage of his convictions after all was said and done.

That said, Obama is of course much worse. He's a disgrace. His timing is impeccable - on the heels of giving the mullahs a pass as they are crushing those calling out for freedom,he announces, on the same night, that he is going to restore the ambassador to both Syria and Venezuela. Apparently just one was not enough for him. And it looks like he's wanting to bring Hamas into the fold as well - he's told Syria that there's no problem in contuning to host Hamas.