“At a time when Israel is engaged in defending its citizens against the brutality of Hamas terrorism, which has unleashed an outpouring of anti-Semitic rhetoric, threats and intimidation and violence in the U.S. and around the world, we expected the administration to abide by its longstanding commitment to fighting global terrorism and the scourge of anti-Semitism and Israel’s role on the front lines of that fight,” the ADL said. So was the friendship all that? Abraham Foxman, ADL’s national director, says yes, absolutely. The dust-up over the U.N. resolution was a typical disagreement among close friends — Olmert’s only mistake was going public with the down-and-dirty details. “These comments should really be reserved for one’s memoirs,” Foxman said.

Steve Clemons, a senior analyst with the liberal New America Foundation, said that Bush’s closeness to Israel made leaders of the Jewish state overconfident and ultimately damaged its interests. “The biggest thing Israel needs to contribute to is, if not in substance, then in the optics of American success in the Middle East,” he said. Making the Bush administration seem subservient to U.S. interests undermines that case and will empower Israel’s critics in the incoming Obama administration. “The more our power is doubted, the more at risk Israel is,” Clemons said. “For Israel, even in the ridiculous gestures of an outgoing prime minister, it undermines them, puts a hole in its security levee.”