Posted by Sadie from D006096.N1.Vanderbilt.Edu (129.59.6.96) on Tuesday, August 26, 2003 at 2:45PM :
In Reply to: key statements in that article: posted by Sadie from D006096.N1.Vanderbilt.Edu (129.59.6.96) on Tuesday, August 26, 2003 at 2:44PM :
:... in 1991, when Israel was persuaded not to respond to Iraqi scud missile attacks during the Gulf war. Israel’s then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir asked for $10 billion in American loan guarantees in return for his compliance. Then-President George Bush tried to tie the guarantees to a freeze on West Bank settlements. Shamir, a staunch supporter of the settlement movement, refused.
: On the other hand, Bush’s principled stand tying U.S. aid to a peace process and a settlement freeze may have cost him his own job. Pro-Israeli groups pressured the president to release the loan guarantees unconditionally. The elder Bush, the Nov. 29, 2002 Forward newspaper reminded readers, publicly complained that he was “one lonely little guy” beset by “powerful political forces.” In the waning days of his doomed bid for re-election, Bush withdrew his objection to the loan guarantees, and Israel received the $10 billion under his successor, President Bill Clinton.
: Will George W. Bush follow his father’s principled example and tie U.S. aid and loan guarantees to Israel’s immediate withdrawal from the occupied territories, a freeze on settlements and agreement to a peace plan?
-- Sadie
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