A parting shot for Rice
and Bush
Craig Nelson, Associate Editor
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister,
presents Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary
of State, with a photo of them with the US
president. AP
Like so much else lately, Israel does not
seem to know when to stop. In the latest
example, it was not a tank or artillery
piece in the Gaza Strip. It was the mouth
of its prime minister, Ehud Olmert.
Speaking in the southern Israeli city
Ashkelon on Monday, Mr Olmert boasted
that he had persuaded the US president
last week that the United States should
not vote for a pending UN Security Council
resolution urging a ceasefire in Gaza. To
the gathering of local officials, the Israeli
leader crowed that his going over the
head of Condoleezza Rice and straight to
George W Bush had “embarrassed” the
US secretary of state because the ceasefire
resolution was one that she had “cooked up,
she organised, she formulated, she maneuvered”.
The White House strongly denied Mr Olmert’s
claim. The ceasefire resolution was still
approved by 14 of the Security Council’s
15 members. Yet Ms Rice was forced
unexpectedly to abstain from voting on a
measure that for three days in New York she
had promoted and helped draft.
Whether Mr Olmert thought that Ms Rice
Mr Olmert is not the first Israeli prime
minister to diss the state department and
trample on a secretary of state. Past Israeli
leaders have routinely sidestepped Foggy
Bottom and the legions of Arabists,
anti-Semites and softies that are alleged
to lurk there. Through friendly intermediaries
they set up back channels into the Oval
Office or rang up the president directly.
To this day, the mere mention of James
Baker spurs venom and foaming mouths
among even normally polite reaches of the
Israeli political establishment. In 1990, Mr
Baker, secretary of state under George H
W Bush, had the temerity, in Israel’s view,
to declare publicly to the right-wing
government of Yitzhak Shamir: “When
you’re serious about peace, give us a call.”
For good measure, Mr Baker offered the
White House phone number: (202) 456-1414.
Needless to say, Israel studiously avoided
dealing with him thereafter. From its point
of view, Israel had good reason for
displeasure with Mr Baker. He and his boss
were pressing for an Israeli-Palestinian
peace deal and, citing the hectic pace of
settlement building in the West Bank,
had denied loan guarantees to the
Shamir government.
In contrast, throughout her eight years in
the Bush administration, first as national
security adviser and then as secretary of
state, Ms Rice has toed Israel’s line and
given it pretty much everything it has wanted.
With brisk efficiency, she has kept the UN
hordes at bay, indulged Israel’s settlement
enterprise in the West Bank and kept the
diplomatic ball dribbling while Israel tried
to achieve its military and territorial objectives.
She not only helped keep the “process” in
“peace process”; she also held off the UN
peaceniks and bought Israel time to complete
its objectives in 2006 when it invaded
Lebanon. Israeli forces did not succeed in
destroying Hezbollah, but not for lack of
trying by Ms Rice. She memorably stalled
diplomatic attempts to forge a ceasefire
with the description of the violence
racking Lebanon as the “birth pangs of
a new Middle East”.
This loyal bidding on behalf of Israel
makes all the more telling Mr Olmert’s
comments on Monday.
“I said, ‘Get me President Bush on the
phone,’” Mr Olmert told his audience.
“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.”
Mr Olmert said Mr Bush told him he
was not familiar with the text. But he
told the president: “ ‘I’m familiar. You
can’t vote for it.’ [Bush] gave an order
to the secretary of state, and she
didn’t vote for it.”
Ms Rice has issued no official
reaction to Mr Olmert’s remarks. But
if they are true, it is clear not only that
the Israeli prime minister insulted her;
Mr Bush sold her out, too. As is the case
with so much of the current war, electoral
politics apparently was behind the public
affront. Critics in Israel had complained
that the Security Council resolution,
while non-binding, reflected a failure of
Israeli diplomacy. With elections scheduled
for Feb 10, Mr Olmert needed to strike back.
The prime minister may have thought that
it did not matter. After all, he is a lame-duck
prime minister and she, a lame-duck secretary
of state. With the Likud Party candidate,
Benjamin Netanyahu, standing in the wings
breathing fire, what harm can come from
giving his foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, a
little boost at the polls by showing this
government can stand up to America?
But it does matter. Israel is still likely to
need the help of the United States and
United Nations to get out of Gaza and to
declare “victory”. More importantly,
Mr Olmert’s shortsighted comments
give credence to what most people in the
world – in particular, in the Arab world –
believe about the US-Israeli relationship.
To wit, Israel is the tail that wags the
American dog.
Jerusalem expected and assumed that
it should get everything it wants. And
when Ms Rice abstained rather than
vetoed the UN resolution, Mr Olmert
apparently was willing to tar the
reputation of the soon-departing US
diplomat to score cheap political points
and appease his government’s critics.
Despite the imminent arrival of a new
administration, the incident is likely to
be cited in this region for years to come.
For Ms Rice, it remains to be seen how
instructive this coda to her diplomatic
career will be.
Next week, she returns to the verdant
hills of Palo Alto, California, and
Stanford University, where she formerly
served as academic dean. As the tranquil
breezes waft off San Francisco Bay,
redolent with the peppery scent of the
eucalyptus trees that dot the campus,
will she wonder: “Did I give in too much?”
