Kicking around US Presidents is a perk of office for Israeli PMs. So is bragging about it afterwards.
Before departing for the land of nod, Ariel Sharon allegedly boasted ‘don’t worry about American pressure, we the Jewish people control America!’ to cabinet colleagues.
Reports of Sharon’s tactless if uncharacteristically honest remark caused a minor stir at the time, but no official denials from Washington. What’s to deny?
Shamed the US Secretary of State, boasted about it afterwards
Now AFP reports Mr Olmert has spilled the beans again, gloating over the surprise US abstention in last week’s UN Security Council vote (emphases added):
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was left shame-faced after President George W. Bush ordered her to abstain in a key UN vote on the Gaza war, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday.
“She was left shamed. A resolution that she prepared and arranged, and in the end she did not vote in favour,” Olmert said in a speech in the southern town of Ashkelon.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution last Thursday calling for an immediate ceasefire in the three-week-old conflict in the Gaza Strip and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza where hundreds have been killed.
Fourteen of the council’s 15 members voted in favour of the resolution, which was later rejected by both Israel and Hamas.
The United States, Israel’s main ally, had initially been expected to voted in line with the other 14 but Rice later became the sole abstention.
“In the night between Thursday and Friday, when the secretary of state wanted to lead the vote on a ceasefire at the Security Council, we did not want her to vote in favour,” Olmert said.
“I said ‘get me President Bush on the phone’. They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn’t care. ‘I need to talk to him now’. He got off the podium and spoke to me.
“I told him the United States could not vote in favour. It cannot vote in favour of such a resolution. He immediately called the secretary of state and told her not to vote in favour.”
Condoleezza Rice: her anonymous spokesperson claims "Israel does not make US policy"
Bush has consistently placed the blame for the conflict on Hamas, telling reporters on Monday that while he wanted to see a “sustainable ceasefire” in Gaza, it was up to Hamas to choose to end its rocket fire on Israel.
But a US State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, denied Olmert’s claim.
“Mr. Olmert is wrong,” the official said. Even if everything had gone according to plan, “she would have abstained. That was the plan,” said the official. “The government of Israel does not make US policy.”
It is possible that Mr Olmert will be having similar conversations with Barak Obama in a week or so, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Somehow, I don’t think Olmert does either. Hence the race to bomb, kill and maim now, while the puttyman is still in the White House.
Professor Cole writes about this incident in Israeli PM Ehud Olmert Claims to be Able to Order Bush Around.
His theory is that the shocking international PR of Olmert’s speech was outweighed by it’s domestic political benefits. In other words (mine), Israeli elections are becoming competitions over who is better at kicking around US Presidents.
Not everyone is happy. Cole reports that Daniel Levy, who had been a Labor Party adviser on peace negotiations, told The Los Angeles Times (emphases added):
“This is terrible for the United States . . . This confirms every assumption they have in the Arab world about the tail wagging the dog. . . . It’s a story you’re likely to hear quoted there for years to come.”
Levy also accused Olmert of “unparalleled arrogance.”
“There are some things you don’t say, even in Ashkelon, even in Hebrew . . . “
UPDATE 2: Private Eye Front Cover, Issue 1227
The Special Relationship in action
