The domineering White House

Many, many years ago when I was a cub reporter for The Daily Star in Beirut, I was assigned to cover the visit of a prominent British parliamentarian, who was arriving at Beirut's airport late one evening.

The parliamentarian, if I recall well, was Edith Summerskill, who had been loudly critical of British policy on the Middle East and concerned about the plight of the Palestinians.

As soon as she landed, I was able to talk to her about her trip to the region and she was very accommodating until I tried get her to elaborate on her views or criticism of the British policy. She immediately stopped talking and said: "We have a saying back home that once you cross the rocks of Dover, we do not criticise our government."

Her comment impressed me and I thought it was quite honourable of her to adhere to this laudable understanding.

But, on reflection, this was not the case with Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives and the third in line to the presidency, during her just-concluded five-nation Mideast tour, much as President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney and their followers would like all to believe.

For one, Pelosi did not publicly criticise US policy during her talks with the leaders of Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia. In fact, she was implementing what a bipartisan commission had urged the US to do: open contacts with both Syria and Iran.

She was also pursuing what many American congressmen do during a Congressional recess, that is, visit areas of their interest or concern.

And she very wisely hand-picked her delegation to represent, so to speak, both sides of the question, including Representative Tom Lantos, Democrat, California, chairman of House Committee on Foreign Affairs and a survivor of the Holocaust and the Democrat closest to the Israeli lobby, and Henry Waxman Democrat, California, an "advocate" of Israel; Keith Ellison Democrat, Minnesota, the first Muslim-American in Congress, and Nick J. Rahall, the senior Arab-American in Congress among others.

Despite the unfair criticism levelled at her by Bush or Cheney for her praiseworthy trip to Damascus and talks with President Bashar Al Assad, the public spat underlined two important facts: The close relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the White House, and the willingness of the Israeli leader to jump whenever he is told to do just that by Washington.

Absurd 'clarification'

The "clarification" that he was prompted to issue over what he had asked Pelosi to tell the Syrian leader was nothing more than a repetition of the American position, leading some to wonder whether Olmert has become a full-fledged American lackey.

In part, the absurd "clarification" declared that "in order to conduct serious and genuine peace negotiations, Syria must cease its support of terror, cease its sponsorship of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organisations, refrain from providing weapons to Hezbollah and bring about the destabilising of Lebanon, cease its support of terror in Iraq, and relinquish the strategic ties it is building with the extremist regime in Iran".

Surely Syria, as well, could have its own preconditions and, won't it be better for the two sides to leave these issues to when they both sit at the negotiating table?

This "clarification," according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) baffled the Pelosi delegation. "The speaker conveyed precisely what the prime minister and the acting [Israeli] president asked," Lantos told JTA.

Lantos believes that Olmert's routine message was prompted "by Israeli press reports that Olmert was concerned that Assad was gearing up for a summer war based on the misconception that Israel was ready to attack in concert with a US strike on Iran".

In other words, the Israeli leader just sought to reassure the Syrians that "Israel was not in an aggressive posture" hence his willingness to talk peace.

Lantos suggested, the JTA reported, that there was pressure from the White House. The news agency recalled a similar incident during the war with Hezbollah when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked Olmert into a 48-hour ceasefire to allow humanitarian relief, but within hours Israeli planes were bombing again, to Rice's surprise and anger.

It concluded that "Olmert had received a call, apparently from Cheney's office, telling him to ignore Rice".

A day after Pelosi's controversial visit, the Syrian president received Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, an Arab American, and other Republican Congressmen earlier, without any raucous reaction from the domineering White House that is losing control at home.

George S. Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist.