NYTimes -- Olmert Says He Made Rice Change Vote
MichaelP
NYTimes January 12, 2009
WASHINGTON : In an unusually public rebuke, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of
Israel said Monday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been
forced to abstain from a United Nations resolution on Gaza that she helped
draft, after Mr. Olmert placed a phone call to President Bush.
'I said, "Get me President Bush on the phone"' Mr. Olmert said in a speech
in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, according to The Associated
Press. "They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia.
I said I didnt care: "I need to talk to him now"' Mr. Olmert continued.
"He got off the podium and spoke to me."
Israel opposed the resolution, which called for a halt to the fighting in
Gaza, because the government said it did not provide for Israel"s
security. It passed 14 to 0, with the United States abstaining.
Mr. Olmert claimed that once he made his case to Mr. Bush, the president
called Ms. Rice and told her to abstain. "She was left pretty
embarrassed" Mr. Olmert said, according to The A.P.
The State Department disputed Mr. Olmerts account. "Her recommendation was
to abstain; that was her recommendation all along" said an official,
speaking on condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the
matter.
After the vote, Ms. Rice said the United States "fully supports" the
resolution, which called for "an immediate, durable and fully respected
cease-fire leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza" but
opted to abstain to see the outcome of an Egyptian-French peace
initiative. Ms. Rice did not respond to Mr. Olmert's remarks, which were
unusual even in the context of the secretarys occasionally bumpy
relationship with the prime minister, according to the official.
Privately, Mr. Olmert has said Ms. Rice sometimes had to be reined in for
getting ahead of the president on policy. "They have a good relationship,
but there have been some ups and downs" the State Department official
said.