Powell was just a figurehead, not a player

By Nathan Guttman

During Colin Powell’s tenure as secretary of state, the adage that U.S.-Israel relations are managed by the White House and the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, with the secretary of state and foreign minister playing purely secondary roles, became even more firmly entrenched. Powell met with Israeli officials and was sent on missions to the region, but the Israeli file was always in the hands of President George W. Bush and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. It is enough to examine the handling of the most important diplomatic issue of the last few years - the pullout plan - to understand where Powell fit in the picture: Dov Weisglass and Rice worked out the details, Ariel Sharon and Bush closed the deal, while Powell played no key role at all.

But for Powell, Israel was only one example of how the White House, and sometimes the Pentagon as well, took foreign policy out of his hands. This was even more true of the war in Iraq.

Powell was careful to maintain a balanced Middle East policy. He defended Bush’s position that Yasser Arafat was not a partner for negotiations, and therefore Israel had no partner, but in the nuances, he was much less supportive of Israel than was the White House, and gave greater weight to Arab and European views.

There were many instances in which Powell’s State Department was critical of Israel while the White House was more forgiving. This was true regarding construction in the settlements and the outposts, assassinations of wanted terrorists and the separation fence. Israel did not ignore Powell, but it knew that it was always better to wait and see what the White House and the National Security Council had to say, as these bodies were generally more accommodating of Sharon’s policies.

Powell’s departure from the State Department will thus have little impact on U.S. policy toward the Middle East, as his role in shaping that policy was in any case not decisive. If Rice replaces him, there will be no policy changes at all, other than those mandated by the new Palestinian leadership. UN Ambassador John Danforth, another candidate for the job, is also believed to support the existing approach toward America’s role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Powell’s resignation came as no surprise. He has been in conflict with Bush since he first took office, when he expressed a view of the North Korea issue that differed from the president’s, and he had to retract it. The conflicts increased in the run-up to the Iraq war. According to Bob Woodward’s book on this period, Bush made the decision to go to war together with Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, informing Powell only after the fact. Nevertheless, Powell remained loyal in public and tried to execute Bush’s policies.

Throughout his tenure, Powell tried to extend a hand to the international community and to balance Bush’s unilateralism. He succeeded in building an impressive coalition for the war on terror after the September 11 terror attacks, but failed in his efforts to do the same for the Iraq war.

Now that he is leaving, all that remains is to await the book he will write or the interview he will give, in which perhaps he will finally dare to give his true opinion of Bush and his administration - an opinion that he has been careful to hide during the last four years.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/502024.html