[LCM Articles] Baltimore Chronicle: Bush pushed Olmert to war in late May]

[Mary Jirmanus]

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2006/081406PARRY.shtml
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Israeli Leaders Fault Bush on War by ROBERT PARRY

Bush even urged Israel to attack Syria, but the Olmert government
refused to go that far.

Sunday 13 August 2006--Amid the political and diplomatic fallout from
Israel's 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
group's 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 Bush's 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 Bush's 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 Bush's 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
Israel's 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
<http://consortiumnews.com/> " A 'Pretext' War in Lebanon.
<http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/080806.html>"]

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 Hezbollah's attack on an Israeli
outpost and the capture of two more Israeli soldiers on July 12.

Hezbollah's 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 Lebanon's 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 weren't 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 ...in Israel, some leading newspapers have begun
calling for Olmert's resignation: "You cannot bury 120 Israelis in
cemeteries, keep a million Israelis in shelters for a month and then
say, 'Oops, I made a mistake.'" Back in Israel, some leading
newspapers have begun calling for Olmert's 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 Israel's 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.





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