Trust between Israel and US is key, and it's missing - opinion

• Published date: 19 April 2024
• Author: YAAKOV KATZ
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Months earlier, Israel had brought intelligence to the Americans about a nuclear reactor that North Korea was building in northeastern Syria. Olmert had asked Bush to attack and destroy it, and, after months of deliberations, the president was calling to inform the prime minister of his decision

"I cannot justify an attack on a sovereign nation unless my intelligence agencies stand up and say it's a weapons program," the president told the Israeli premier. Instead, he said, he would be taking the issue to the International Atomic Energy Agency and then to the United Nations.

At first, Olmert listened, but when Bush was done speaking, his response was forceful and immediate.

"Mr. President," he started. "I understand your reasoning and your arguments but don't forget that the ultimate responsibility for the security of the State of Israel rests on my shoulders, and I'll do what needs to be done, and trust me – I will destroy the atomic reactor."

It was a moment that could have led to a great crisis between Israel and the United States, especially at a time when the IDF feared that the bombing of the reactor could lead to an all-out regional war with Syria and Hezbollah. But it didn't. Bush respected Olmert's forceful stance, and while he disagreed with the decision, he ordered his staff not to get in Israel's way.

The similarities between then and now

I've been thinking a lot about the Olmert-Bush phone call ever since Sunday morning and after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had his own phone call with President Joe Biden following the Iranian missile and drone assault against Israel.

Both are instances of presidents trying to persuade a prime minister of a policy with which the Israeli leader disagrees, and in both cases, the prime minister pushed back.

There was a similar tension with the Americans in 1981 when then-prime minister Menachem Begin decided to take unilateral action against the Osirak nuclear reactor Saddam Hussein was building near Baghdad.

Then-president Ronald Reagan was adamantly opposed to Israeli action, and while the US allowed a sharply worded resolution to pass at the Security Council, Reagan said that he would not publicly condemn Israel. "That would be an invitation for the Arabs to attack," he said at the time.

Osirak and Syria were two cases separated by 26 years but connected by a similar foundation: an understanding in Jerusalem that even at the risk of deteriorating ties with the United States, Israel needs to do what is...