WELL, TOP THREE ANYWAY :

Israel's best friend in the White House (Jonathan Rosenblum July. 4, 2002, Jerusalem Post)

While his speech caught everyone by surprise, it should not have. As Jeff Ballabon, a leading Jewish Republican activist, points out, Bush has been remarkable in his consistency. He has never met with Arafat. While sympathizing with Palestinian suffering, he has never used that suffering to "explain" Palestinian terrorism. And in the face of repeated calls to become more involved in Middle East peacemaking, he has remained ever mindful that the years of intense American involvement resulted only in unprecedented carnage. Those who missed these essential lines were simply too busy listening to State Department officials trying to force the president into the traditional patterns of thought.

Finally we have a man in the White House who really does believe in something other than triangulating according to the latest polls. Bush is no moral relativist nor a student of realpolitik. The most striking thing about his speech was his insistence on seeing the Middle East through the lens of his own deepest values. For Bush, terrorism cannot be evil when directed at Americans, but justifiable when directed against Israelis. Democracy cannot be good for Americans but not for Palestinians.

The clarity of vision President Bush displayed last week makes him truly Israel's best friend ever in the White House.

Though no fan of Harry Truman's presidency, there are two things for which he does get credit; integrating the armed forces and recognizing the state of Israel. The first was particularly courageous because it was against his political interest; the second because it was against our national interest and was opposed by the man he respected above all others General Marshall. But on both issues Truman did the right thing and one wonders if many other presidents would have. So he can rightly be considered the best friend Israel's ever had in the White House.

A close second would be Ronald Reagan who was not only so steadfast a supporter as to likewise act against our own interests by getting involved in the Lebanon but who, by ending the Cold War, saved Israel from a demographic crunch--via an influx of Eastern European emigrees-for at least a generation.

George W. Bush has a ways to go before he enters this lofty company, but well begun is half done.

UPDATE :
M Ali Choudhury calls our attention to the following :
No schmooze with the Jews : However entwined the sentiments, the national interest comes first (The Economist, Apr 4th 2002)

All American presidents have happily crushed the Jewish lobby whenever they think the national interest demands it.

Ronald Reagan, a pro-Israeli president, sold AWACS aircraft to Saudi Arabia over strong objections from AIPAC. He was so infuriated by Israel's invasion of Lebanon that he put a picture of a Palestinian child on his desk. In 1991 George Bush senior brushed aside AIPAC's objections when America threatened to withhold loan guarantees if Israel continued to expand its settlements in the occupied territories. Successive American administrations have declared Jewish settlements in the territories illegal and counterproductive. AIPAC, like all ethnic pressure groups, is good at getting its way on things that presidents don't much care about. But when it tries to butt its head against issues of national interest, it ends up with a headache.

The current administration is a particularly odd candidate for the role of cat's-paw to the Jewish lobby. Jews are the only group of rich white people who habitually vote Democratic—and many of the Jewish commentators who are credited with such influence over American policy would rather dress up in a Ku Klux Klan outfit than endorse the current president.

The Jewish lobby has a particularly testy relationship with the Bush dynasty. Jewish organisations regarded George Bush senior as the most anti-Israeli president in recent years—a man who saw the Middle East in terms of oil supplies rather than Israel's destiny. James Baker, the elder Bush's secretary of state, is credited with a memorable line on the Jewish lobby: “F*** the Jews. They don't vote for us anyway.”

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 6, 2002 8:19 AM