I can't say enough about Aaron David Miller's richly-detailed book The Much Too Promised Land. It puts flesh on the sometimes-skeletal understanding in Walt and Mearsheimer's book. Anyway, last night I read that George Bush's historic June 24, 2002 speech in which he called for a Palestinian state, if only the Palestinians would get new leaders, was partly written by Israelis. Writes Miller:
“The State Department pushed for more expansive language on statehood and Jerusalem, believing that a more specific political horizon was required, but they were lucky to hold the line on statehood…One guy who had no doubt the president had done the right thing was Ariel Sharon. In fact, the Israelis seem to have had significant input in shaping the speech, even providing some of the language. Natan Sharansky, the Soviet dissident, former Israeli cabinet minister, and proponent of democratization as the key to peace, appears to have had influence through Vice President Cheney….Efraim Halevy, the Mossad chief…. believed Bush’s speech was a ‘spectacular achievement’ for Sharon. Dov Weisglass, who would join the prime minister’s team as a key advisor in May 2002, agreed completely. He wouldn’t quantify Israel’s input into the speech for me, but he recalled, ‘there was an exchange of texts, ideas, and information.’ For the president to ‘see eye to eye with us’ on major principles of our policy, Weisglass recalled, was a ‘critical accomplishment.'”
The only thing to add to this really is: Is this how we should make policy? But I must add a couple points. The speech was considered a necessary sop to the Arab world in the runup to the Iraq war. Anyone who says that Zionist neocons didn’t play an important role in Bush warmaking must read Miller’s account. Yes: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld made policy. But Miller now adds Sharansky (a true extremist) to Cheney’s kitchen cabinet, along with neocon Bernard Lewis.
I’ve long said that the Jewish community will not come to terms with its role in supporting the Iraq war until liberals in that community turn on the neocons, identify their plans for greater Israel, and speak of their influence in the Bush administration. Aaron Miller is doing that important work.
