WASHINGTON — In a coincidence of timing, President Bush hosted a dinner for Jewish leaders just at the moment he most needed to speak with them.
Bush used a June 11 dinner for nearly 100 American Jewish leaders to try and repair the damage from comments he made a day earlier when he blasted Israel’s attempt to assassinate a Hamas leader and said the action did not advance Israel’s security.
The comments outraged many Jewish groups, which said Bush was abandoning the principles of his war on terror and his landmark speech of last June 24.
The dinner was timed to mark the opening of a new Anne Frank exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. While many established Jewish leaders were not invited — overlooked in favor of political contributors, rabbis and Jewish White House staffers — Bush nonetheless used the dinner to make his views clear.
One participant said no White House officials had publicly justified Bush’s remarks on the Israeli strike on Hamas. Instead, Bush and others acknowledged the Jewish community’s criticism and pointed to Bush’s comments following the June 11 suicide bombing in Jerusalem, in which he called on Arab states to aid the fight against terrorism.
In the days since the dinner, Bush has criticized Hamas, calling on the international community to join the fight against the terrorist group.
Both in his formal remarks and in private conversations with Jewish leaders on June 11, Bush emphasized repeatedly that he still believed in the framework of his June 24 speech and that he saw Israel’s security as his top priority in the Middle East.
“Everything I heard him say was totally a reinforcement of the security of Israel and that it was not going to falter,” said Fred Zeidman, chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.
Zeidman, a Bush appointee, said he believes there was some frustration in the White House because the latest violence came less than a week after Bush traveled to the Middle East for summits with Israeli and Arab leaders. That frustration may have led to Bush’s remarks on the strike against Hamas, he said.
Other dinner guests said Bush told the Jewish audience that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas is “weak” and that Arab support would be key for progress toward peace.
“He was very reassuring,” one participant said.
Despite last week’s surge in violence, the administration is continuing to push the “road map” peace plan. Veteran diplomat John Wolf arrived in Jerusalem over the weekend to lead an American team charged with monitoring day-to-day progress under the plan. It was Wolf’s first trip to the Middle East since Bush announced his appointment at the summit with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Bush’s guests were taken by bus to the formal unveiling of the Holocaust Museum’s new exhibit on the writings of Anne Frank, which was officially opened by First Lady Laura Bush. They then were transported back to the White House for a reception and dinner.
It was the first time a completely kosher dinner was served at the White House, guests said. “There was such a sense that everyone should feel comfortable,” one said.
In his pre-dinner remarks, Bush spoke of anti-Semitism around the world and of his commitment to Holocaust education. “People who hate life and God target the people of God,” Bush reportedly said.
At the museum, Laura Bush recalled the couple’s recent visit to Auschwitz, saying, “I thought I knew my history,” but “I realized there’s some things textbooks can’t teach.”
She spoke of being moved by the sight of thousands of eyeglasses of Holocaust victims, their lenses still stained from tears and dirt.
The Washington exhibit, “Anne Frank the Writer: An Unfinished Story,” includes Frank’s photo album, the last of her three diary notebooks and some of her other writings.
Most of the artifacts are on loan from the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation and have never been displayed in the United States.
The museum also has an online exhibition on its Web site, including readings from Frank’s writings and historical photos and films, at www.ushmm.org