Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States vetoed Israel’s plans to bomb Syria’s
nuclear reactor, with senior officials threatening to sever military aid
to the Jewish state, a new book said.

Elliott Abrams, a former deputy national security advisor, recalled how
President George W. Bush opposed Israel’s plans to destroy Syria’s nuclear
reactor facility at Kibar in 2007.

In his new book “Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” Abrams said Bush, regarded as the most pro-Israeli U.S. president, was urged by his secretary of state and defense secretary — Condoleeza Rice and Robert
Gates — to threaten to cut off military aid to the Jewish state.

“Secretaries Gates and Rice argued strenuously for the diplomatic
option,” Abrams said. “Gates also argued for preventing Israel from bombing the reactor and urged putting the whole relationship between the United States and Israel on the line.”

The American threats against Israel came despite confirmation by the
U.S. intelligence community that Syria was completing construction of a North Korean-designed nuclear reactor near the border with Turkey. Abrams said Bush administration arguments against an Israeli or U.S. strike included the prospect of a stronger Israel or an Islamist backlash.

“I tried to think my way through Rice’s reasoning, but came up with only
one theory,” Abrams said. “She had simultaneously been expressing opposition
to a new program of increased military aid to Israel. This indicated to me
that she had an underlying strategy: She did not want Israel feeling
stronger.”

Instead, Ms. Rice wanted Israel to become more dependent on the United
States, Abrams said. He said Ms. Rice was hoping to pressure then-Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert to ensure the establishment of a Palestinian state in
the West Bank before Bush left office in 2009.

Abrams said relations between Ms. Rice and Olmert became confrontational
in the aftermath of the 2006 Israel-Hizbullah war. The book said Ms. Rice
was dismayed by Israel’s failure to defeat Hizbullah in the 33-day war, in
which the Iranian proxy fired 4,500 missiles and rockets into the Jewish
state.

“Relations between the United States and Israel had grown rocky after
Israel’s incursion into Lebanon in 2006, for Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice believed the Israelis had mishandled both the military and the
diplomatic sides of the conflict,” the book said.

In the end, Bush told Olmert that the United States would not use
military force against Syria. The president also demanded that Israel follow
suit, but Olmert rejected this and pledged to destroy the Syrian reactor.

“I had wondered how the president would react to the Israeli action,”
Abrams recalled. “With anger? Or more pressure? None of it. He heard Olmert
out calmly and acknowledged that Israel had a right to protect its national
security. After hanging up, the president said something like ‘that guy has
guts,’ in an admiring tone. The incident was over; the differences over Al
Kibar would obviously not affect Bush’s relationship with Olmert or his view
of Israel.”

Abrams, who served in several Republican administrations, supported the
Israeli destruction of the Syria reactor. He indicated that the 2007
incident could serve as a model for the current dispute between Washington
and Jerusalem over Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions.

“Israel was also right in rejecting fears that the incident would lead
to a larger war and in believing that it, and the United States, would be
better off after this assertion of leadership and determination,” Abrams
said. “That lesson must be on the minds of Israeli, and American, leaders in
2013.”

  “Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”, Condoleeza Rice, Ehud Olmert, Elliott Abrams, New book: Bush rejected advice to stop bombing of Syrian reactor, Robert Gates