WASHINGTON (JTA) — George W. Bush said Israel’s 2007 bombing of a Syrian nuclear reactor restored his confidence in Israel after the 2006 Lebanon War debacle.
The former U.S. president covers a number of issues related to the Middle East in his autobiography, "Decision Points," which was published Tuesday.
“Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert’s execution of the strike made up for the confidence I had lost in the Israelis during the Lebanon war," Bush wrote in his book, according to an account by The Associated Press.
Israel and Syria have yet to fully acknowledge that such a strike took place.
Israel launched war against Hezbollah after the Lebanon-based terrorist group kidnapped three Israeli soldiers in the summer of 2006 in a cross-border raid. A commission concluded afterward that the war might have been too expansive in its aims.
Olmert has suggested that the Bush administration was unhappy because Israel failed to uproot Hezbollah. There were signs at the time that the Bush administration was divided on the matter.
Condoleezza Rice, then the secretary of state, wanted Israel to pull back; Vice President Dick Cheney wanted Israel to crush Hezbollah.
Olmert suspended the war under international pressure.
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