OnePeople

Bush Kind Of Endorses an Israeli Retaliation

Following his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday, President Bush announced that "If Iraq were to attack Israel tomorrow, I'm sure there would be appropriate response. I would assume the prime minister would respond. He's got a desire to defend himself." That was interpreted by many as implicit support for the Israeli position. It is widely assumed that the United States does not want Israel to become involved in any Gulf War, for fear that Israeli involvement would complicate alliances.

Many news sources treated this as implicit endorsement, but the Jersusalem Post secured a quote from Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the National Security Council. McCormack says that the President's statement described an Israeli response to an unprovoked Iraqi attack, "If there's a military action (by the US), that's a qualitatively different situation."

The Jerusalem Post has since posted a revised story which changes the "Bush hedges" headline to "Bush stops short of endorsing Israeli retaliation against Iraq"

The AP reported that during their meeting, Bush did not ask the Prime Minister to stand down if attacked in the course of a second Gulf War.

The Boston Globe called this "one of the most volatile questions." The Globe also got the same clarification as the Jerusalem Post, but this time from Ari Fleischer: "That is a separate issue from, if Iraq tomorrow launched an attack unprovoked, whether they would have a right to defend themselves." The Globe also has an anonymous State Department official, who says "A lot of this is for public consumption, even if we do pay a price with Arab nations."

CNN ran the headline, but avoided parsing the President's words and quickly moved on the warning he gave to Hezzbollah over the diversion of water in Lebanon claimed by Israel.