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Last update - 02:46 06/01/2008
A hostile president
By Gideon Levy
Tags: Gaza, Lebanon, George Bush 

George Bush is coming to Israel this week. He will take pleasure in his visit. One can assume that there are few prime ministers with a giant photo of themselves with the U.S. president hanging on the wall in their home, as our Ehud Olmert boasted last week that he does, to his exalted guest, the comic Eli Yatzpan. There are also few other countries where the lame duck from Washington would not be greeted with mass demonstrations; instead, Israel is making great efforts to welcome him graciously. The man who has wreaked such ruin upon the world, upon his country, and upon us is such a welcome guest only in Israel.

A man is coming to Israel this week who has left a trail of killing, destruction and global hatred. Never has the U.S. been so despised as during Bush's seven years in office, which abruptly brought his county back to the not-so-merry days of Vietnam.

He led the U.S., and the free world in its wake, into two brutal and completely futile wars of conquest, first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. He sowed mass killing in these two wretched countries under the false pretext of a battle against global terror.
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But the world after these two wars is not a better world or a safer one. And these two wounded countries feel no gratitude toward the superpower that ostensibly came to emancipate them from their regimes of terror.

There was no connection between the attack on the Twin Towers and Iraq. Saudi Arabia, where most of the terrorists came from, could have been a more appropriate target but it remained an ally of the U.S. despite its despotic regime. The war in Iraq, the rationale for which - the presence of weapons of mass destruction - was revealed to be false, was an atrocious, futile war that is far from being over, even if its daily toll of killing has declined from 100 to 50.

In Western Europe, in South America, in Asia, in all parts of the Arab and Muslim world and in parts of Africa, the sole global superpower has come to be viewed as a hostile, arrogant and ostracized entity. This is not good for America and it is not good for the world.

Closer to home, it is worth remembering the damage Bush has caused to the Middle East. His seven years in power have been wasted years, barren and dangerous. Never has there been a president who gave Israel such an automatic carte blanche and even encouraged it to take violent action, to deepen and entrench the occupation.

This is not friendship with Israel. This is not concern for its future. A president who did not even try to pressure Israel to end the occupation is a president who is hostile to it, indifferent to its future and fate.

A president who endorsed every abomination - from the expansion of settlements to the failure to honor commitments and signed agreements, including those with U.S. such as the passages agreement and the freeze on settlement construction - is not a president who seeks the best for Israel or aspires to peace.

What happened to the days when Israel hesitated before planting another trailer home in the territories or before every liquidation operation out of fear for America's reaction? What happened to the days when there was a president in Washington who sowed trepidation in Jerusalem before each human rights violation or war crime?

This is all we got from Bush: a more entrenched and brutal occupation with the open, or tacit, encouragement of the U.S.; a green light for another superfluous war in Lebanon; a Hamas government in Gaza, which the U.S., and consequently the rest of the world, is boycotting - a measure that has only led to the starvation of Gaza, while failing to weaken Hamas; and U.S. authorization for "the settlement blocs."

The Middle East has only moved further away from peace during Bush's tenure.

His belated and feeble attempts to change this fact have not produced anything. Until a determined president is inaugurated in Washington who will engage in a serious effort to bring an end to the occupation, no peace will prevail here. Bush could have done this, but he abused his office.

This is the man who is coming to us this week. History will yet judge him for his actions and his failures. The world feels enmity toward him and even the U.S. is already sick and tired of him. Only here is he accorded honor and glory.
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  1.   Hostile president? No, war criminal... 05:20  |  Miriam 06/01/08
  2.   Levy is 100% Correct 07:20  |  MB 06/01/08
  3.   well said, I am pleased to see that free press still 07:39  |  GO HOME YANKIE 06/01/08
  4.   I love you Gideon, but it gets worse 08:07  |  ricki bobbi 06/01/08
  5.   Gideon Levy`s half-ideas 09:35  |  moshe Israel 06/01/08
  6.   When we shuddered for the Middle East 10:39  |  Clickfool 06/01/08
  7.   America - the Jackass Years 10:46  |  Clickfool 06/01/08
  8.   Haim Cohn: Our Only Hope 11:08  |  Zeev 06/01/08
  9.   A hostile president 11:36  |  Txema Ruiz 06/01/08
  10.   Levy, our collective poodle 11:39  |  FOX 06/01/08
  11.   Clickfool speaks, nobody shudders 11:45  |  FOX 06/01/08
  12.   Left-liberal hypocrisy 11:49  |  Rowan Berkeley 06/01/08
  13.   Boring predictable trite Levy 11:51  |  Nik "Banned" Miller 06/01/08
  14.   Miriam, what are you on? 11:55  |  FOX 06/01/08
  15.   I agree completely with Gideon levy 11:55  |  Natallie Durson 06/01/08
  16.   Gideon Levy & A.Hass are enemies of Israel 11:57  |  Vittorio 06/01/08
  17.   Gideon Levy & A.Hass are enemies of Israel 11:57  |  Vittorio 06/01/08
  18.   THE CRIMINAL OF THE CENTURY 12:10  |  indrajaya 06/01/08
  19.   Absolutely brilliant , well done G Levy 12:35  |  Sam (UK) 06/01/08
  20.   Rowan #12 12:38  |  FOX 06/01/08
  21.   Afghanistan is completely justified. 12:41  |  Devin Leonard 06/01/08
  22.   Natalie`s wet dream #15 12:45  |  FOX 06/01/08
  23.   Do Arabs say they will accept Jewish state if it leaves West Bank 12:47  |  Sam 06/01/08
  24.   Mr. Levy you forgot the Bush-Jews connection? 13:07  |  Dutch Dirk 06/01/08
  25.   Gideon isn`t a journalist 13:08  |  Rachel 06/01/08
  26.   appreciation 13:10  |  Ouday Al Mandalawi 06/01/08
  27.   Indrajaya turns to lies once again 13:14  |  FOX 06/01/08
  28.   I notice you`re posting from Israel, Fox # 11 13:28  |  Clickfool 06/01/08
  29.   Good Article 13:33  |  David 06/01/08
  30.   For Fox again # 22 13:39  |  Clickfool 06/01/08
  31.   a hostile president 13:43  |  marco maggiar 06/01/08
  32.   Levy sounds like UBL last tape 13:53  |  Joseph E . 06/01/08
  33.   The only hostility is Gideon Levy`s towards Bush 13:56  |  Fortuna Benmayor 06/01/08
  34.   #20 Fox 13:57  |  Rowan Berkeley 06/01/08
  35.   Well said Gideon Levy 14:07  |  Nick Ferriman 06/01/08
  36.   A Hostile President 14:23  |  Cyasher 06/01/08
  37.   # 27, FOX 14:25  |  indrajaya 06/01/08
  38.   hostile president 14:33  |  joram 06/01/08
  39.   Bravo Gideon!Only in israel is the criminal from the white house 14:35  |  lakshmi 06/01/08
  40.   and this is Journalism? 14:41  |  eddie 06/01/08
  41.   A good, but incomplete, survey of the disaster called Bush 14:54  |  David Turner 06/01/08
  42.   A good, but incomplete, survey of the Disaster called Bush, 2 14:55  |  David Turner 06/01/08
  43.   don`t confuse indifference with shallowness 15:09  |  dav zee 06/01/08
  44.   Bush is a courageous leader 15:19  |  Barry 06/01/08
  45.   For David Turner # 42 15:22  |  Clickfool 06/01/08
  46.   #33 Berkeley -not so fast please, where do you get your facts fro 15:22  |  nehemia dB 06/01/08
  47.   A hostile correspondent 15:25  |  Renate 06/01/08
  48.   levy is a tax on common sense he makes me giddy 15:26  |  victor hardman 06/01/08
  49.   He`s a war criminal, just like the majority of Israelis.... 15:29  |  POP 06/01/08
  50.   to Rachel #24 15:29  |  Kaled 06/01/08
  51.   For Renate # 47 15:34  |  Clickfool 06/01/08
  52.   Quite right eddie #40 15:34  |  S 06/01/08
  53.   #45 Clickfool 15:35  |  ShadowMarshall 06/01/08
  54.   too bad Jimmy Carter isnt running 16:00  |  Raed Kami 06/01/08
  55.   Saddam vs. Bush; a comparison 16:19  |  Tosefta 06/01/08
  56.   LAME duck 16:26  |  Paul 06/01/08
  57.   Amen 16:35  |  Michael N 06/01/08
  58.   Bush`s phony war on terror 16:36  |  Tosefta 06/01/08
  59.   Gideon, make that sick to death of Bush & Israel please 16:46  |  Dutch 06/01/08
  60.   Bush, Israel and the world`s responsibility 17:00  |  V 06/01/08
  61.   The wrong went to the gallows In Iraq. 17:05  |  dutch 06/01/08
  62.   Bolshevik style democracy 17:07  |  Frank 06/01/08
  63.   G. Levy hostile to Israel 17:07  |  Wade 06/01/08
  64.   Levy, it is YOU who are hostile to Israel 17:26  |  McQueen 06/01/08
  65.   Levy, notice how every Israel-hater here loves your articles 17:28  |  McQueen 06/01/08
  66.   awesome 17:47  |  sev 06/01/08
  67.   Bush is the best president ever in those difficult times 17:48  |  TOMY 06/01/08
  68.   Levy Clearly Doesn`t Understand War on Radical Islam 17:53  |  Jane 06/01/08
  69.   With every new article Giddy is trying hard 17:53  |  TOMY 06/01/08
  70.   Answer this 18:06  |  Kafooy Tova 06/01/08
  71.   Bush is not Hostile, Gideon Levy Absolutly Hostile! 18:12  |  Ron 06/01/08