PRESIDENT BUSH'S BROKEN PROMISES. Especially in light of President Bush's new initiative, it is helpful to judge where we may be going by where we have been.

Arutz Sheva noted that:

Bush has clearly stated the need for mutuality:

Pres. Bush also stopped short of saying Israel must withdraw from all of Judea and Samaria. Bush said rather that future Israel-PA negotiations must "lead to a territorial settlement, with mutually agreed borders reflecting previous lines and current realities, and mutually agreed adjustments."

This is all well and good, but as Michael Rubin reminds us, Bush has given rosy assurances before that have not been lived up to.

Promises have been broken:

On June 24, 2002, Mr. Bush declared, "The United States will not support the establishment of a Palestinian state until its leaders engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure." Less than a year later the State Department reversed course, eliminating the cessation of terror as a precondition for engagement. Palestinian terrorism grew.

Terrorists have been reinvented into peace partners:

While the White House condemns Hamas terrorism, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, to which Mr. Bush promised a half billion dollars in July, is equally culpable. A year ago Fatah's military wing threatened to "strike at the economic and civilian interests of these countries [the U.S. and Israel], here and abroad," and it claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on the Israeli town of Sderot in June.

The US has dishonestly propped up a corrupt leadership:

Mr. Bush has yet to act on his promise to resolve the case of Palestinian banker Issam Abu Issa, whose visa the State Department revoked in February 2004 as he prepared to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Palestinian Authority corruption.

Unlike in Iraq, instead of a surge--Israel is being subjected to more of the same watered-down policy that has continued to weaken Israel and strengthened her enemies. Unlike in Iraq, President Bush--and the US--do not have a personal stake in what happens to Israel.

And it shows.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Michael Rubin and President Bush.