President Bush yesterday afternoon pronounced himself “troubled” by what he called “the recent Israeli helicopter gunship attacks.” Mr. Bush said he was “concerned that the attacks will make it more difficult for the Palestinian leadership to fight off terrorist attacks.” The president said, “I also don’t believe the attacks help the Israeli security.”

These objections to an Israeli raid on a terrorist kingpin, Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, were disappointing. How can Mr. Bush second-guess the judgment of Prime Minister Sharon, a legendary general who was twice elected by the Israeli people in free and democratic elections to assure their security? It’s just hard to imagine that Mr. Bush, sitting in Washington and elected by Americans, has a clearer view of what helps Israeli security than does Mr. Sharon, sitting in Jerusalem and elected by Israelis.

Americans themselves grasp this point. In an April poll of 600 “opinion elite” voters that was commissioned by the Israel Project, the firm Public Opinion Strategies found that 61% of respondents agreed with this statement: “Given Palestinian non-compliance with past agreements, it is easy to understand Israel’s insistence that the Palestinians take concrete action, especially against terrorism. Israel can no longer rely on empty promises.”

In a May poll of 1,000 registered voters that McLaughlin & Associates did for the Zionist Organization of America, Americans were asked, “Which one of the following factors is the main obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs?” The most popular answer, at 23.8%, was, “the refusal of Palestinian Arab leaders to sincerely recognize Israel’s right to exist.” The next most popular answer, which 12.5% chose, was, “The ongoing violence by Palestinian Arab terrorists against Israel.” Only 4.8% of respondents said the main obstacle was “the tactics used by Israel to combat terrorism.”

In an e-mail yesterday, Christian conservative leader Gary Bauer cited American attacks on Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and terrorists in Yemen. “In each case we correctly asserted our right to defend ourselves and we told all critics to shut up,” Mr. Bauer wrote. “What is the moral, political, strategic or ethical basis for any U.S. president to tell another free nation that it cannot defend itself?” The political calculators may claim these voters have nowhere else to go, but that’s not necessarily true. They may stay home, or be less enthusiastic in volunteering, or they may even cross over to Senator Lieberman if he is the Democratic presidential nominee.

Yesterday, six major Orthodox Jewish groups issued a statement taking exception to the White House criticism and supporting Israel’s acts of self-defense. The Anti-Defamation League’s national director, Abraham Foxman, as reliable an indicator of mainstream, centrist American Jewish opinion as there is, issued a letter yesterday to Mr. Bush taking issue with the president’s criticism of Israel. “Israel, like the U.S., has the right to defend itself from terrorism,” Mr. Foxman wrote. “Ultimately it will be necessary for Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and his forces to dismantle Hamas. Until then, Israel cannot stand idly by while its citizens are slaughtered.”

A Democratic congressman from New York, Eliot Engel, last night made arguments similar to those made by Mr. Bauer and Mr. Foxman. “Just like the United States was right to seek out Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and to use a drone to target terrorist leaders in Yemen, the Israelis have the right to try and stop terrorists from killing innocent men, women, and children. Until the Palestinian Authority can control the terrorist groups in the West Bank and Gaza, the Israelis have every right to self-defense,” Mr. Engel said. And another New York Democrat, Senator Schumer, in a statement to The New York Sun, said, “What George Bush has always understood is that until the violence ends there can’t be peace. Let us hope that he realizes that if Abu Mazen isn’t capable of this — which seems unfortunately to be the case — Israel has to do it herself.”

Mr. Bush will in the end have to reckon with these domestic political realities. Mr. Sharon will have to reckon with his own democracy, the realities of which are illuminated by the Jerusalem Post editorial in the adjacent columns. The one leader of the threesome that lacks the power that comes with a true democratic mandate is the Palestinian prime minister, Mr. Abbas. It’s no accident that he’s the one that so far has taken the weakest stance against the terrorists.