While the U.S. continues its pushback against Israel's humiliating settlements announcement last week, Republicans in Congress predictably rushed to defend the Netanyahu government. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor branded the Obama administration "irresponsible" and claimed its treatment of the special relationship with Israel "jeopardizes America's national security." Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) parroted Likud Party talking points about American interference in a "zoning decision in its capital city." And for his part, John McCain blasted the "public disparagement" of Israel and instead called on Obama to "talk quietly among friends."
Of course, when the issue was the war against Iraq, the GOP had different ideas about how to win friends and influence people. Back then, the Bush administration, its conservative amen corner and John McCain most of all publicly mocked America's long-time NATO allies.
The invective hurled at Paris and Berlin for their refusal to follow the United States into Iraq wasn't limited to political stunts like the renaming of "freedom fries" or boycotts of France. Sarcasm, scorn and derision became the de facto official policy of the United States.
Starting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Just weeks before the invasion, President Bush's man at the Pentagon blasted "old Europe":

"Germany has been a problem and France has been a problem. But you look at vast numbers of other countries in Europe, they're not with France and Germany... they're with the US. You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe."

That spring, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice summed up the Bush administration's new posture towards the Atlantic allies:

"Punish France, ignore Germany, forgive Russia."

But none was more scathing in his ridicule than John McCain.
As President Bush prepared to pull the trigger on the Iraq war in February 2003, John McCain was at the forefront of those browbeating the Chirac government for France's refusal to back the U.S. at the United Nations. On February 11, 2003, McCain co-sponsored a Senate resolution praising 18 European nations backing U.S. enforcement of UN demands for Saddam's disarmament. In his press release, McCain echoed Rumsfeld in thundering at the France and Germany of "old Europe:"

"The majority of Europe's democracies have spoken, and their message could not be clearer: France and Germany do not speak for Europe...most European governments behave like allies that are willing to meet their responsibilities to uphold international peace and security in defense of our common values. We thank this European majority for standing with us."

McCain's venom towards the French was on full display two days later during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. On February 13, 2003, McCain warned of "new threats to civilization [which] again defy our imagination in scale and potency" portrayed Iraq as "threat of the first order." He proclaimed that "the United States does not have reliable allies to implement a policy to contain Iraq" and pointed the finger squarely at France:

"Compare our great power allies in the Cold War with those with whom we act today in dealing with Iraq.
France has unashamedly pursued a concerted policy to dismantle the UN sanctions regime, placing its commercial interests above international law, world peace and the political ideals of Western civilization. Remember them? Liberte, egalite, fraternite."

Just days later on February 18, 2003, McCain continued his campaign of what he now calls "public disparagement" towards France:

"They remind me of an aging movie actress in the 1940s who is still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it...
Perhaps Churchill and Roosevelt made a very serious mistake when they decided to give France a veto in the Security Council when the United Nations was organized."

McCain's feud with the French continued even after the start of hostilities and President Bush's May 1 declaration of "mission accomplished" in Iraq. But in a cynical July 2003 keynote address to the Atlantic Partnership (which promotes "the benefits of a strong and stable Atlantic community of nations"), Senator McCain acted as if he had never uttered his seething words of condemnation. Even in papering over the schism he helped foster, McCain couldn't resist taking a potshot at France:

"France and Germany shared the goals of our campaign to disarm Saddam Hussein's regime. We obviously disagreed over the means. Now that we have achieved our common objective of ending the threat posed by Saddam's Iraq, it's time to stop quarreling over the way we did so and move on. European nations that opposed the war must resist the tendency to say "I told you so," sit on the sidelines as the United States and our partners attempt to transform Iraq, and hope we find ourselves in a sandy quagmire that, in the eyes of some war opponents, would give us our just due."

Of course, that was then and this is now.
The United States and Israel share common interests, but not identical ones. That point was driven home not just by Vice President Biden, but by conservative darling David Petraeus. As Foreign Policy reported, the CENTCOM leader warned the U.S. Joint Chiefs earlier this year that "Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing U.S. standing in the region." But while John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Sam Brownback and John McCain all urged unswerving support for General Petraeus when he served in Iraq, they are not listening to him now that the topic concerns another close American ally, Israel.