State Dept: Israeli PM flat wrong on Rice

[Barack_America]

Source: Associated Press

By MATTHEW LEE – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department on Tuesday flatly rejected an assertion by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he caused the Bush administration to abstain from last week's U.N. resolution on Gaza and that the abstention embarrassed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Spokesman Sean McCormack said the comments attributed to Olmert "are wholly inaccurate as to describing the situation, just 100-percent, totally, completely not true" and suggested that the Israeli government might want to clarify or correct the record.

Olmert said Monday that Rice had been embarrassed by orders from President George W. Bush to abstain from voting on the cease-fire resolution that she was negotiating. Olmert said he had called Bush — and interrupted him at an event in Philadelphia — to ensure the United States did not vote for it.

"I said: 'Get me President Bush on the phone,'" Olmert said in a speech in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. "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."

Olmert said he argued that the United States should not vote in favor of the resolution, and the president then called Rice and told her not to do so. "She was left pretty embarrassed," Olmert said.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iY4Nrrc7ArNE_hMPTbKURjxDgjuQD95MC6S80

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Reuters takes a less harsh view...

US says remarks on Olmert-Bush call inaccurate

Tue Jan 13, 2009 12:12pm EST

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday denied that a telephone call from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to President George W. Bush forced Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to abstain in a U.N. vote on the Gaza war.

"Some of what we've seen is not accurate," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

"There are inaccuracies," he said about Olmert's remarks Monday night in a speech broadcast on Israeli television and widely reported in the media.

Olmert said he had demanded to talk to Bush with only 10 minutes to spare before a U.N. Security Council vote on a resolution opposed by Israel calling for an immediate ceasefire.

"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 said...

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSN13393939

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Olmert bragging about calling the shots in Washington? Wow. And is Gaza (finally) causing a strain in US-Israeli relations? Fascinating stuff.

Mods: Though Olmert's remarks were reported yesterday, the "breaking" aspect today is McCormack's rather blunt criticism and the suggestion that Olmert should "clarify" them.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. Don't the folks at AIPAC and ADL cry "anti-semitism" at charges that Israel determines U.S. policy?

I guess Olmert is an anti-Semite now, since he's saying he did directly determine our policy on this issue.

[subsuelo]

2. that tactic is reserved solely for critics of Israel.

[LeftishBrit]

11. He didn't say he determined American general policy/ actions.

He said (apparently) that he determined America's reaction to Israeli policy/actions. A somewhat different matter.

He is not an antisemite. But he is a self-aggrandizing liar, like many politicians. He's also on his way out.

[Hamlette]

3. the part that is not accurate, according to Juan Cole, is that Bush left a speech

who cares if that is right or not. He did talk to Bush and told us to change our vote in the UN.

This is a non denial denial from state.

I hope this causes a stink. It should. Although I support Israel this latest action is extreme. I've read that it is because of upcoming elections, so a right wing nut does not get elected.

[peacetalksforall]

4. Who 'ya goin' ta believe? The liars or the liars.

I'm not referring to Israelis - I'm referring to the leaders of Israel and the leaters of the current U.S. regime.

When the extinction of the refugees in the Gaza Strip first started, we heard talk that it was because of the upcoming election?

Did O say this for election purposes?

I say they are doing this because they want the land and coast and they don't want Palestinians to take water, oil, gas. Rather they want the pipelines to come across the through or near the Strip.

I say - cancel aid to Israel - seven months of aid for each week of the massacre. Otherwise, it means that we, the people of the U.S., are also massacaring the Paslestinians.

Do we really work to support this?

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[WHAT]

14. screwd up (or down), arnt u...

the palestinian refugees are in egypt and elsewhere, not palestine because gaza is part of palestine...

quote...
When the extinction of the refugees in the Gaza Strip

what the hell o are you talking 'bout lol...

quote...
Did O say this for election purposes?

whose taking or controlling life (insert lernd euphemism)

quote...
they want the land and coast and they don't want Palestinians to take water, oil, gas

no, it dont...

quote...
it means that we, the people of the U.S., are also massacaring the Paslestinians.



ittybitty ppl r responsable and noone else...

[FarCenter]

5. Since the Brits were requested to draft the resolution, I wonder what they think?

"Rice joined her French and British ministers in drawing up the resolution and the three Western powers haggled with Arab countries for three days over wording, which Rice told the U.N. Security Council she supported."

[Barack_America]

8. Reports were that the British and French were dumbfounded by Rice's abstention.

Considering it totally gutted the resolution that they had crafted, by giving Israel an "out" to ignore the resolution, which they later did.

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Olmert will not win friends in the WH by mocking W.'s other wife.

And what does he have against Rice anyway? Is he a male chauvinist pig? Is he racist? Is anyone who even dares to mention the possibility of peace a target in his world view?

[pjt7]

7. Olmert will not win friends in the WH by mocking W.'s other wife

B-)

[Barack_America]

10. Other:

It's election season and he apparently thinks Israeli voters respond to that kind of BS.

But, you're right, his satisfaction of the embarrassment he perceives he caused Rice does make me wonder if there's something personal going on. Perhaps he's still pissed that the US said "hell no" to Israel's demands that we cooperate in a raid on Iran?

[FirstLight]

9. sooooooo, WHEN will our new SS start the job?

I think next week will signal a huge shift in the way the state dept and the oval office coordinate efforts, and I would like to think that our president will be making policy calls, not isreal's prime minister...

am I naieve?

[Barack_America]

12. Interesting perspective from an Olmert fan...

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/12/olmert_slams_condi_advanced_classes_in_chutzpah/

[Scurrilous]

15. Olmert hits back in spat with U.S. over remarks on UN Gaza truce vote

<snip>

"Ehud Olmert's bureau maintained on Wednesday that the outgoing prime minister had correctly described diplomatic moves that led to last week's United Nations resolution on a truce in Gaza, despite a United States rejection of his account.

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday flatly rejected Olmert's assertion Monday that he had convinced the Bush administration to abstain from the resolution calling for an immediate truce between Israel and Hamas in the coastal strip.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack also denied that the abstention embarrassed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

McCormack said the comments attributed to Olmert "are wholly inaccurate as to describing the situation, just 100-percent, totally, completely not true" and suggested that the Israeli government might want to clarify or correct the record.

Olmert said Monday that Rice had been embarrassed by orders from President George W. Bush to abstain from voting on the cease-fire resolution that she was negotiating. Olmert said he had called Bush - and interrupted him at an event in Philadelphia - to ensure the United States did not vote for it."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055460.html

[Barack_America]

16. Wow. Thanks for the update. This is high drama, for sure.

I can't wait to see what happens next. :popcorn:

[redqueen]

18. Wow.

This isn't just going to go away. I wonder what the State Dept will say next...

[Scurrilous]

17. Rice calls Olmert account ‘fiction’

<snip>

"Condoleezza Rice called "fiction" Ehud Olmert's claim that he persuaded President Bush to abstain from a U.N. Security Council call for a cease-fire and left the secretary of state "shamed."

"The prime minister was, I hope, quoted out of context, because the story that I read in the newspaper is fiction," Rice said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

"The president and I talked about the resolution, about the importance of allowing the council to send a signal even though the United States believed that the resolution was premature," she said. "And I had made it very clear that I thought the resolution was premature, and there were also concerns about a resolution that had Israel, a member-state of the United Nations, and Hamas, which is a terrorist organization -- you don’t ever want there to be any equating those two.

"And so we talked. We talked about abstention as a good option. And I was quite aware of the president’s call to Prime Minister Olmert. Of course, Prime Minister Olmert is not at all aware of what the president said to me. And I repeat, his rendering of this is fiction -- if, in fact, that was his rendering of it. And I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps it’s not exactly what he said."

more

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. What precisely is inaccurate about it?

Did Olmert call Bush? Did he interrupt his speech to take the call?

Did Bush then subsequently direct Rice to abstain from voting on the resolution she herself had written?

Kind of hard to put a different interpretation on the facts.