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Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
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| By Israel Insider staff October 10, 2007 |
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Bush administration officials are divided over whether Israeli intelligence reports, which revealed last month that North Korea was helping Syria develop nuclear facilities, should affect US policy towards the two countries.
The IAF carried out an air strike last month against Syria's fledgling nuclear efforts, razing the site that housed the material. Israel reportedly provided the US with intelligence reports before the operation to gain America's approval for the strike.
"Some people think that it means that the sky is falling," a senior administration official told the New York Times on the condition of anonymity. "Others say that they're not convinced that the real intelligence poses a threat."
The administration can be roughly broken down into two camps. The more conservative officials, Vice President Dick Cheney among them, say that Israel's intelligence reports are significant enough to necessitate a change in US policy towards Syria and North Korea, notably a return to America's former policy of isolation.
America's deal with North Korea, which granted the communist nation economic incentives to dismantle its nuclear facilities, angered conservatives who believed that the Bush administration placed diplomacy with North Korea ahead of the battle to combat the spread of illicit weapons in the Middle East.
"Opposing the Israeli strike to protect the six-party talks would be a breathtaking repudiation of the administration's own national security strategy," the paper quoted John R. Bolton, former United States ambassador to the United Nations, as saying.
However, the other camp, led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is pushing for the US to maintain its policy of diplomatic engagement.
"You can't just make these decisions using the top of your spinal cord, you have to use the whole brain," said Philip D. Zelikow, the former counselor at the State Department. "What other policy are we going to pursue that we think would be better?"
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