Which President? Being they're usually checked by Congress,; thats a hard one.. Nixon?
Oh, and I think the expression is more apt wrt the Arabs than you might think. It didn't take the Ottoman Turks all that much to keep all of Arabia under their heels for centuries. Plus, the manner in which each dictatorship squashes and subdues it's people with a heavy hand and not much else. Anecdotally, there are many tales of the Arab cut and run during the '67 and '73 Israeli Wars, for example.
The problem with the current Israeli/Pallie conflict is that the Israeli's hands are tied, in different ways. But as the Pallie leverage disappears (post Iraq), watch their negotiating posture "change".