Mission: Incomplete
No time for double standards.

November 8, 2001 12:15 p.m.

resident George Bush must stop kowtowing to monarchs and dictators in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, and Egypt. He must stop blowing kisses at the Palestinian Authority, Syria, and Iran. They're terrorist states.

Whether he's doing this to keep Arab oil flowing to the U.S., to include Arab and Muslim nations in the antiterrorism coalition, to show widespread opposition to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, or for whatever reason — the fact is that these regimes are not reliable allies. Some are sworn enemies. Virtually all of them are breeding grounds for terrorists. Conversely, Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and America's staunchest friend in the region.

President Bush knows America and Israel have a special relationship. When he was seeking the presidency last year, he gave an important speech on May 22, 2000, to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Conference. He said, in part:

America and Israel have a special friendship. In fact, it's more than a friendship. America and Israel are brothers and sisters in the family of democracy, natural allies — natural allies in the cause of peace.

The family of democracy transcends borders and oceans. What unites us is a powerful conviction, perhaps the greatest of all convictions. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Clearly suggesting that his approach to Israel would differ from Bill Clinton's heavy-handedness, in which Clinton exerted great pressure on Israel to bend to the demands of the Palestinians in reaching a legacy-building peace deal, Bush also said:

...I recognize the importance of the peace process and the key role that the United States can play. But my support for Israel is not conditional on the outcome of the peace process."

America's special relationship with Israel precedes the peace process. And Israel's adversaries should know that in my administration, the special relationship will continue, even if they cannot bring themselves to make true peace with the Jewish state.

And he didn't stop there. Knowing full well that moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem would infuriate the Palestinians, as they claim part of that city as their own, Bush nonetheless said:

...As soon as I take office, I will begin the process of moving the United States ambassador to the city Israel has chosen as its capital.

A mere 15 days after taking office, Bush broke his word. On ABC's news program This Week, his secretary of state, Colin Powell, said that there were no immediate plans to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv, but the new administration was "studying it."

On CNN's Late Edition, Bush's national-security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, repeated Powell's assertion:

Part of the process will be to talk to friends in the region to assess the possibilities of doing this. But the commitment remains. The question of exactly when and now, I think, has to be judged within the context in which we find ourselves.

And during his presidency, while scores of Israelis — including an Israeli cabinet minister — have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists, Bush and his advisers have demanded that Israel show "restraint" and return to the peace table.

But nothing surpasses the temerity of Bush's statement on October 2, 2001:

The idea of a Palestinian state has always been part of a vision, so long as the right to Israel to exist is respected.

Bush's statement is demonstrably false. The only previous president to endorse a Palestinian state was Bill Clinton, and he only did so at the end of his presidency. Ronald Reagan, for example, rejected it out of hand. Look how far Bush has retreated in such a short period of time.

Moreover, the Bush Doctrine, born from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, provides that terrorists and states that sponsor terrorism are enemies of the civilized world, and that they must be defeated. And as recently as November 6, 2001, Bush said:

Later this week at the United Nations, I will set out my vision of our common responsibilities in the war on terror. I will put every nation on notice that these duties involve more than sympathy or words. No nation can be neutral in this conflict, because no civilized nation can be secure in a world threatened by terror...

Why, then, does Bush demand that Israel not respond to terrorism but, in fact, that it negotiate with terrorists and those who harbor them? Why the double standard for a nation with which, as Bush said, we have a "special relationship?"

And there's one other point. President Bush has repeatedly asked Americans to be respectful and tolerant of the Muslim community. He has made clear that we are not at war with Islam, but with terrorists. These are wise and laudable ideals. Yet Bush has been completely silent about anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic comments that have become more rabid since September 11 — both here and abroad. I'm sure if he asked, his press office could gather the myriad of published articles proving the point. In any event, here's a small sampling:

* The Chicago Sun-Times has reported:

From Cairo to Kuwait and Damascus to Dushanbe, Muslims have singled out the Jewish state as the unseen hand behind the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In casual conversations, newspapers and Internet chat rooms, many in the Muslim world are endlessly chewing over and recycling unsubstantiated rumors that implicate Israel. They're saying, for example, that [f]our thousand Jews who worked at the World Trade Center were mysteriously absent the day hijackers crashed two airliners into the towers [and that a] group of five Jews was arrested shortly after the attacks after they were spotted videotaping the crashes from a New York rooftop and dancing in jubilation.

Typical is an editorial in the Syria Times. It named Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as the brains behind the September 11 horror. "Sharon is known for his experience in masterminding and carrying out massacres and collective killings. The recent attacks are actually acts of professional criminals like Sharon and his ilk."

* It has been widely reported that an exhibit at An-Najah University in Nablus reenacted the August 9, 2001, slaughter of innocent people in Israel by a Palestinian suicide bomber at a Sbarro pizzeria, which killed 15, including two Americans. The exhibit included a replica of the restaurant with the Hebrew letters "kosher," a student setting up a fake explosion, and a student dressed as a terrorist with the Koran in one hand and a rifle in the other.

* The former Imam of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, Sheik Muhammad Al-Gamei'a, complaining about the treatment of Muslims in America after September 11, said:

Muslims do not feel safe even going to hospitals because some Jewish doctors in one of the hospitals poisoned sick Muslim children, who then died.

* Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and among the Muslim leaders Bush invited to the White House, said, before the identification of the September 11 hijackers was known:

If we're going to look at suspects, we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents. I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list because I think this diverts attention from what's happening in the Palestinian territories.

* When New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani rejected Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal's $10 million donation after the prince implied that the terrorist attacks were related to U.S. policy in the Middle East, the prince said:

The whole issue is that I spoke about their position [on the Mideast] and they didn't like it because there are Jewish pressures and they were afraid of them.

Guiliani rejected the prince's statement as nonsense.

* It was recently reported that for 50 years, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva, and now apparently members of the American Red Cross's board, oppose full federation membership for the Magen David Adom (Israel's Red Cross), because it uses the Red Shield of David as its symbol.

Bush's condemnation of racism and bigotry is laudatory, but it's incomplete. It is imperative that he speak out against all voices of hatred, including those aimed at Jews and the Jewish state.

President Bush's leadership during these difficult times has been extraordinary. I was, and am, an ardent supporter. But there's a disturbing inconsistency in both the application of his antiterrorism doctrine and his rhetoric of tolerance and compassion.