Former Israeli liaison to the U.S. Congress Yoram Ettinger explained to Arutz-7 today why U.S. President Bush has taken such a notably pro-Israel position of late:
\"First of all, he feels that Arafat has personally betrayed him, and more than once... In addition, he is a student of former President Ronald Reagan, who reacted forcefully against Muammar Kaddafi and ports in Tripoli when five American soldiers were killed by Libyan terrorists in Germany... Also, Bush is surrounded by veterans of the Gulf War of 1991 - Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rice, and many others - who remember that the Palestinians were the bad guys at that time, who helped and cheered Saddam Hussein, and have since helped other terrorist elements as well... Another consideration is that he is in the midst of fighting the Taliban, and so it\'s hard for him to tell the Israelis to sit quietly, as the State Department would like, in the face of its own terrorist threat.\"
\"Israel does not seem to be noticing the American green light for strong Israeli action against Arafat,\" Ettinger said. \"The green light is flashing even more brightly of late, but for some reason Israel seems to be suffering from color blindness and is translating the green light into a red light. There has never been a better time for Israel in terms of American public opinion... This could change, however. We have yet to see if the present Bush has learned from the mistakes of his father, who didn\'t finish off Saddam Hussein and instead enabled him to come close to having nuclear capabilities. In Afghanistan, it looks as if has learned, but the question is whether he will then go on to fight other terrorist organizations around the world...\"
\"First of all, he feels that Arafat has personally betrayed him, and more than once... In addition, he is a student of former President Ronald Reagan, who reacted forcefully against Muammar Kaddafi and ports in Tripoli when five American soldiers were killed by Libyan terrorists in Germany... Also, Bush is surrounded by veterans of the Gulf War of 1991 - Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rice, and many others - who remember that the Palestinians were the bad guys at that time, who helped and cheered Saddam Hussein, and have since helped other terrorist elements as well... Another consideration is that he is in the midst of fighting the Taliban, and so it\'s hard for him to tell the Israelis to sit quietly, as the State Department would like, in the face of its own terrorist threat.\"
\"Israel does not seem to be noticing the American green light for strong Israeli action against Arafat,\" Ettinger said. \"The green light is flashing even more brightly of late, but for some reason Israel seems to be suffering from color blindness and is translating the green light into a red light. There has never been a better time for Israel in terms of American public opinion... This could change, however. We have yet to see if the present Bush has learned from the mistakes of his father, who didn\'t finish off Saddam Hussein and instead enabled him to come close to having nuclear capabilities. In Afghanistan, it looks as if has learned, but the question is whether he will then go on to fight other terrorist organizations around the world...\"