The pro-Israel Jewish community will likely best remember President George H.W. Bush, who passed away at the age of 94 last week, for his opposition to loan guarantees to Israel in 1991-1992. At the time, Bush sought to condition the loan of $10 billion (to resettle Soviet refugees) on Israel curtailing settlement activities in the West Bank.
But loan guarantees were not the only bilateral conflict during the Bush years. Avi Pazner, senior advisor to former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, and later the Israeli ambassador to Italy and France, witnessed many of these conflicts firsthand. After Bush’s passing, I phoned Pazner to talk about what he saw.

What was it like to visit Bush in the US?
I accompanied Shamir to all his meetings in the White House, and there were many, starting from the first one in 1989, when Bush asked Shamir to stop building new settlements. Shamir, who was right of center, attributed great importance to the settlement enterprise. He gave [Bush] an evasive reply saying only, “It won’t be a problem.” When Bush understood that Shamir was saying that it wouldn’t be a problem “for Israel,” it led to tense relations.
But then Iraq invaded Kuwait, and Bush’s attitude toward Shamir changed. In the months leading up to the American invasion of Iraq, the atmosphere was much friendlier, because Bush wanted to make sure Israel wouldn’t disrupt the international coalition he’d built with the Arab states. After that, ties actually did improve, starting from October 1990.

How so?
He stopped nagging Israel about the settlements, and began to talk about strategic cooperation. True, Israel wasn’t part of the coalition, but after Israel was attacked with Scud missiles, Bush succeeded in convincing Shamir not to respond. He said Saddam was setting a trap, trying to force the Arab states to leave the coalition, and Shamir bought the argument. Emotions ran high in the Cabinet, with ministers Ariel Sharon and Moshe Arens maintaining that Israel must attack western Iraq in order to stop the Scuds. But after three conversations with Bush, Shamir decided against responding. He wanted to defeat Saddam Hussein. I was there; they argued for hours.

So, would you call him a friend of Israel or not?
You can’t say he wasn’t a friend of Israel. He was fair, but you can’t accuse him of being overly friendly. He wasn’t hostile; he protected what he saw as America’s interests. And he didn’t see it in the same way that Israel saw it at that time.

How did Shamir react?
Shamir was totally cool. He’d fought in the Lehi, had worked for the Mossad; he wasn’t afraid of Bush.
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 738)