Israel Matzav: Abrams: Olmert defied Bush when he bombed Syria's al-Khibar reactor

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Abrams: Olmert defied Bush when he bombed Syria's al-Khibar reactor

Oh dear me. The chemistry between George W. Bush and Ehud K. Olmert was far more positive than the negative vibes between Binyamin Netanyahu and Barack Hussein Obama. And yet, in an interview with the JPost, former Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams reports that Olmert defied Bush's desire for negotiations by bombing the al-Khibar reactor on his own.

Abrams, asked about the recent comptroller report chastising the government for a haphazard decision-making process, said that Bush was provided with impeccable options, policy papers and intelligence.

"We took it all to the president – covert options, military options, diplomatic options – and he chose the wrong option," said Abrams, who at the time was the deputy national security advisor in the White House. "It is a mistake to believe that the process itself will provide you with the right answer."

Wednesday's State Comptroller's report was highly critical of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for not fully empowering his National Security Council as mandated by law, and for a sloppy, informal decision making process leading up to the Mavi Marmara incident.

Abrams, however, used the Syrian nuclear facility issue as an illustration to demonstrate that what is more important than thorough preparation and a good process is the right people making the right decisions. He also said that some of the best White House meetings were informal ones where no notes were taken.

According to Abrams, his preferred option in the summer of 2007 when intelligence information emerged that the Syrians were constructing a nuclear facility was for Israel to take it out, in order for Jerusalem to rebuild its deterrence capability following the Second Lebanon War a year earlier.

Vice president Dick Cheney argued for the US to bomb the facility itself, Abrams said, to rebuild America's deterrence capability.

...

But the option Bush chose, some six weeks before Israel acted, was the one preferred by secretary of state Condoleezza Rice: make the existence of the facility public and then go to the IAEA and UN and build an international consensus to get the Syrians to close the facility.

Abrams said he though the idea was "absurd," and that Syrian President Bashar Assad would defy the IAEA and not do anything.

When Bush informed Olmert of the decision in July 2007, Abrams recalled, Olmert said that the strategy was not acceptable to Israel. It was clear to everyone that from that point on there would be no sharing of plans, and that "Israel would let us know afterward," he said.

It kind of makes you wonder why we haven't done the same thing with Iran, doesn't it? Maybe because Olmert could be confident that he could disagree with Bush without destroying the relationship, while Netanyahu has to deal with the egomaniac currently in office in Washington.

By the way, the picture at the top of this post was taken at Massada, and I believe it was taken in 2008, that is after the al-Khibar raid. On the other hand, Annapolis took place about two months after al-Khibar and I cannot help but wonder whether Israel's agreement to attend that conference was somehow connected to Bush's agreement not to make a big fuss over al-Khibar. Hmmm.

One final thought. Imagine how different things would be today if Syria were a nuclear power. Probably the one thing Olmert did right during his term.

Labels: al-Kibar, Ehud K. Olmert, George W. Bush, Syrian nuclear program