ABSTRACT
This chapter compares Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations and then draws a number of conclusions about similarities and differences in the policies of the two administrations. From 9/11 to June 2002, the Bush administration actively sought to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in order to build Muslim support for its war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and the coming war against Iraq. When the George W. Bush administration took office in 2001, it had a number of reasons not to continue Bill Clinton's activist policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict. From June 2002 to Yasser Arafat's death in November 2004, there were witnessed periodic attempts by the United States to facilitate an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. Despite Mahmoud Abbas's failure to crack down on Hamas, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to facilitate cooperation between Israel and the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority as the disengagement took place. In addition to their different political perspectives, Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu differed on Middle East priorities.
