AUGUST 2006
Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and President Bush during an Aug. 7
press conference in Crawford, Texas. (AP Photo/Evan
Vucci)
Bush and Condi clash
over Israel; president overrules her for the first time
Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice has become increasingly dismayed
over President Bush's support for Israel to continue its
war with Hezbollah.
State Department sources said Ms. Rice has been
repeatedly stymied in her attempts to pressure Israel to
end strikes against Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon. The
sources said the secretary's trip to the Middle East last
week was torpedoed by the Israeli air strike of a
Lebanese village in which 25 people were killed.
"I've never seen her so angry," an aide said.
The U.S. response to the Israeli-Hezbollah war was said
to have divided both the administration as well as the
family of President George W. Bush. At the same time, it
marked the first time since Ms. Rice became secretary of
state that the president has overruled her.
"For the last 18 months, Condi was given nearly
carte blanche in setting foreign policy guidelines,"
a senior government source familiar with the issue said.
"All of a sudden, the president has a different
opinion and he wants the last word."
The disagreement between Mr. Bush and Ms. Rice is over
the ramifications of U.S. support for Israel's continued
offensive against Lebanon. The sources said Mr. Bush
believes that Israel's failure to defeat Hezbollah would
encourage Iranian adventurism in neighboring Iraq. Ms.
Rice has argued that the United States would be isolated
both in the Middle East and Europe at a time when the
administration seeks to build a consensus against Iran's
nuclear weapons program.
Instead, Ms. Rice believes the United States should
engage Iran and Syria to pressure Hezbollah to end the
war with Israel. Ms. Rice has argued that such an effort
would result in a U.S. dialogue with Damascus and Tehran
on Middle East stability.
"The United States and Israel must understand that
it is not in their long-term interests to allow
themselves to become isolated in the Middle East and the
world," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Rice ally and
senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"Both Damascus and Tehran must hear from America
directly."
Ms. Rice has garnered support from several senior
Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee, including
chairman Sen. Richard Lugar. Members of the inner circle
of Mr. Bush's father, the former president, have also
been advocating for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon,
with subsequent pressure on Israel for a diplomatic
settlement with the Palestinians.
Ms. Rice's biggest supporter has been Brent Scowcroft,
who served under the first Bush administration as
national security advisor. Sources said Mr. Scowcroft,
regarded as Ms. Rice's mentor, has been sending messages
to his friends in Congress and the White House that U.S.
support for the Israeli war could jeopardize relations
with Gulf oil suppliers, particularly Saudi Arabia.
"A comprehensive peace settlement would not only
defang the radicals in Lebanon and Palestine, and their
supporters in other countries, it would also reduce the
influence of Iran -- the country that, under its current
ideology, poses the greatest potential threat to
stability in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan,"
Mr. Scowcroft wrote in a column in the Washington Post on
July 30.
The sources said Mr. Bush's position has been supported
by Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld and to a lesser extent National Security Advisor
Stephen Hadley. They have urged the president to hold off
international pressure and give Israel more time to cause
strategic damage to Hezbollah as well as Iranian and
Syrian interests in Lebanon.
"I think if you think of what's happening in Lebanon
and Israel right now, you see the face of the beginning
of the 21st century," Mr. Rumsfeld said in a radio
interview on Aug. 2.
Aides for Mr. Cheney have argued that the United
States should have targeted Hezbollah and Syria during
the war against Iraq in 2003. They said despite U.S.
intelligence warnings Hezbollah was allowed to dominate
Lebanon and build a formidable force along the Israeli
border.
"There was talk of taking care of Hezbollah and
Syria, but Condi and [then-Secretary of State Colin]
Powell said 'no way. We don't need another front,'"
an official said.
Mr. Bush's support for Israel has also struck a chord
with most Americans. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll
reported that 59 percent supported Israel in the war
against Hezbollah and only 13 percent of respondents
backed an immediate ceasefire.
But the sources said Mr. Bush has been dismayed by the
Israeli failure to defeat Hezbollah. They said several
high-ranking Republicans have expressed amazement at the
plodding Israeli advance into Lebanon.
"One Jewish friend of Bush actually called up a
senior Israeli official and began yelling, 'What the
hell's going on here,'" a source said. "'Are
you going to fight or what?'"