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. . . Bush's Mideast policy, the 2003 invasion of Iraq and his willingness to stand tough against unfriendly Arab regimes and Islamists have left Israel in a strategically weaker position today than it was eight years ago, says Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator who is now a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank on global and domestic issues. . . .

"At a mass level, people can go doe-eyed when President Bush repeats these nice, warm, embracing platitudes, but in serious assessments of where Israel is at today versus when Bush took office, I think people are a lot more sober and very concerned about the trajectory of where the region is," Levy says. "People are concerned that America is both so much less respected and feared today."  . . .