Olmert’s Boast of ‘Shaming’ Rice Provokes Diplomatic Furor

'The Mistake Was To Talk About It In Public,' One Critic Says

Washington — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert didn't do anything wrong — but he should have kept his mouth shut.

That was the reaction of several Jewish leaders to Olmert's public boast January 11. He said he left Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "shamed" by getting President Bush to block her at the last moment from voting for a Gaza cease-fire resolution that she herself had hammered out over several days with Arab and European diplomats at the United Nations.

Olmert bragged of having pulled Bush off a stage during a speech when he called on the phone and demanded the president's intervention. Administration officials, however, have sharply challenged Olmert's account.

"I have no problem with what Olmert did," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. "I think the mistake was to talk about it in public.

"This is what friendships are about. He was not interfering in political issues. You have a relationship, and if you don't like what is being done, then you go to the boss and tell him."

Douglas Bloomfield, a former chief lobbyist for the Washington-based pro-Israel lobby the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, dismissed the episode as "a spitting match between two lame ducks."

"This reinforces the perception that the Israeli prime minister and Israeli leaders have easy access to the leaders of the U.S.," Bloomfield said. "It is a fact that the Israeli prime minister can get the president on the phone. Not every prime minister in the world can do that. It is no secret that Israel tried to influence the U.S. regarding U.N. votes. It reinforces what the rivals of Israel say about the enormous clout Israel has in Washington, and I see nothing wrong with that."

But Bloomfield added, "It is a mistake to talk about it."

Rice, according to press reports, worked hard with Arab and European diplomats to come up with a Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza that all could support. She finally gave her approval to a draft calling for an "immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza."

But the January 8 vote was delayed just before it was to take place, as Rice was called away to the phone. When she returned, she abstained on behalf of the United States — contrary, other diplomats said, to her earlier commitment. The measure, Resolution 1860, was adopted 14-0, with only America in abstention.

In public remarks afterward, Rice stressed that her government nevertheless strongly supported the resolution.

"We decided that this resolution, the text of which we support, the goals of which we support and the objectives that we fully support, should indeed be allowed to go forward. I believe in doing so, the council has provided a roadmap for a sustainable, durable peace in Gaza," Rice said after the January 8 vote, explaining America's decision to abstain.

Olmert's call to Bush aside, there were hints of internal wrangling within America's administration over the resolution. In a January 11 CNN interview, Vice President Dick Cheney voiced disbelief in the U.N.'s ability to end the fighting in Gaza. "I think we've learned, from watching over the years, that there's a big difference between what happens at the United Nations in their debates and the facts on the ground in major crises around the world," Cheney said.

Israel and Jewish groups, including Aipac, the ADL and the American Jewish Committee, opposed the draft's language, which they saw as one-sided. They also felt that the draft stood in contrast to Israel's demand not to give it equal standing with Hamas in the resolution.

During a January 5 conference call with Jewish activists, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, gave special priority to blocking the international body from taking a stand on the Gaza issue. "We need to work hard to ensure the Security Council doesn't pass a resolution," Hoenlein said.

It was in Ashkelon, in southern Israel, that Olmert gave a speech in which he said that on hearing of the draft that Rice had developed with her U.N. colleagues, he immediately called Bush, just minutes before the U.N. vote. He was told that Bush was giving a speech in Philadelphia and could not talk.

"I said, I don't care; I have to talk to him," Olmert told the crowd, which included reporters and TV cameras.

Bush, according to Olmert, was called off the podium and immediately agreed to look into the issue. "He gave an order to the secretary of state, and she did not vote in favor of it — a resolution she cooked up, phrased, organized and maneuvered for. She was left pretty shamed, and abstained on a resolution she arranged," Olmert told the crowd.

A furious White House and State Department condemned Olmert's account as inaccurate, and the State Department called it "totally, completely untrue." Rice termed it "a fiction."

In a January 13 press briefing, spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice had decided a day before the vote that she would not veto the resolution. McCormack also stated that Rice made the choice to abstain after she consulted with National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and with Bush.

The decision by Rice not to outright veto the January 8 Security Council resolution, as the United States has the power to do under Security Council rules, triggered angry and unusual criticism from Jewish groups that have praised Bush during most of his eight-year White House tenure.

Aipac issued a statement January 6 condemning the U.N. resolution and criticizing the Bush administration for not using its veto power and instead "succumbing to pressure exerted by Arab states."

The ADL expressed disappointment with the administration in a written statement: "We expected the Administration to abide by its longstanding commitment to fighting global terrorism and the scourge of anti-Semitism, and Israel's role on the front lines of that fight."

The tough words from Israel and Jewish groups toward the outgoing administration will make little difference for Bush and Rice, who leave office January 20. But they will serve as a message to the incoming administration led by President-elect Barack Obama and his choice for secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"This is a battle that needed to be taken," Foxman said. "We don't win all our battles, but we can't simply accept that the Security Council is what the Security Council is."

By Nathan Guttman
Thu. Jan 15, 2009

Published in Forward (Jewish Daily)