BARBARA BUSH: DUBYA WAS FIRST JEWISH PRESIDENT

Bush writes positively about the importance of the US relationship with Israel and the Jewish state’s justified concerns over its security, relating how a helicopter ride he took with Ariel Sharon, “a bull of a man,” in 1998 while he was governor of Texas made him “convinced that we had a responsibility to keep the relationship strong.”

At one point his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, even referred to him as the first “Jewish president” after his landmark speech in 2002 calling for a democratic Palestinian state run by a new leadership, i.e. not by then-president Yasser Arafat.

“Shortly after the speech, Mother called,” Bush relates. “‘How’s the first Jewish president doing?’ she asked. I had a funny feeling she disagreed with my policy. That meant Dad [former president George H.W. Bush] probably did as well.” Even so, Bush “laughed off the wisecrack,” though he knew he was in for criticism for taking a position his vice president, secretary of defense and secretary of state opposed.

BUSH WAS THE FIRST PRESIDENT TO CALL FOR A JEWISH STATE OF ISRAEL, THEN - AND LATER IN ANNAPOLIS. AT THE TIME, ABBAS ACQUIESCED; ABBAS NOW OPPOSES IT.

WHY HAS ABBAS BOW ADOPTED A HARDER LINE?

BECAUSE ABBAS HAS AN ALLY IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

ABBAS CAN'T BE EXPECTED TO BE MORE ACCOMMODATING TO ISRAEL THAN THE POTUS.

ERGO: I BLAME OBAMA.