Bush’s final days fraught with Israel-related developments

[kpete]

Source: JTA

Bush’s final days fraught with Israel-related developments

By Ron Kampeas · January 13, 2009

In George W. Bush's last days before joining the ranks of former presidents, the news and developemnts relating to the Middle East continue to pile up.

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Ehud Olmert was shocked: Condoleezza Rice wasn't doing what she was told. The U.S. secretary of state was going to vote in favor of a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire to the Gaza war.

So Olmert called Rice's boss.

"'You can’t vote for this,’" the Israeli prime minister quoted himself as telling the leader of the free world. "And he gave an order to the secretary of state, and she didn’t vote for it. The resolution that she cooked up, she drafted, she organized, she manipulated, the whole thing, and she's left pretty embarrassed!"

Israeli officials resolutely refused on Tuesday to comment on Olmert's braggadocio-infused account of his conversation with President Bush, delivered to an audience in Ashkelon, a city that has been hit by rockets several times since the outbreak last month of Israel's war with Hamas.



Read more: http://jta.org/news/article/2009/01/13/1002228/bushs-fi...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Epic fail.

[fla nocount]

2. Making hay while the sun shines.

The ME was pretty peaceful under Clinton I. Maybe sloppy, slippery seconds under Clinton II have some folks in a hurry.

[superconnected]

3. The longest 7 days of my life ... waiting for dumb dumb to leave office

Too bad he won't be going immediately to prison.

[pasto76]

4. Hey! thats what I call my dogs!

they are rescued mutts from the shelter, but please, they are loyal. Dum-dum #1 and dum-dum #2. BUsh can be like Dum Dum #9

[McCamy Taylor]

5. Why the hell does Israel want to attack Iran? Are they hoping to unite Sunni and Shia?

That is just the most idiotic thing I have ever heard, If Israel is really at war with Iran they should be using Sunnis to attack Iran. Intra-faith war is the way to go. If Israel attacks Iran, all the Muslims will go shoulder to shoulder.

What a dickhead.

[fla nocount]

6. Israel, like any good submissive, does what she's told to do.

And her master is a sick fuck. Look at Coulter for instance, do you really think that emaciated bimbo does her own thinking or writes her own script? Who and why? We already know how.

[bemildred]

7. Olmert stands by his version of Rice flap

Source: AP

JERUSALEM: Aides say Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stands by his claim that he caused the U.S. to abstain from a U.N. resolution calling for a halt in Gaza fighting.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice negotiated the resolution. Olmert claimed earlier this week that he humiliated Rice by persuading U.S. President Bush to instruct her not to vote for it.

Rice spokesman Sean McCormack has called Olmert's claims "100-percent, totally, completely not true."

But on Wednesday, Olmert aides said the Israeli leader told the story as it happened. Olmert has also claimed that Bush broke off a speech he was giving in Philadelphia to take his call, and that the abstention embarrassed Rice.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/01/14/news/ML-Israe...

[babylonsister]

8. Olmert vs. the State Department, who ya gonna believe?

I honestly don't know. None of the above?

[bemildred]

10. Neither is my pick.

[xchrom]

9. nothing embarrasses rice

when she is making like a toad for bush.

[groundloop]

11. Why

does Olmert feel the need to put this out in the media anyway? Sounds like some ego stoking going on there.

[Sanity Claws]

12. So Israel controls US, according to Israel

Interesting admission on several fronts.

[apnu]

13. Also telling of how little power Bush has as PotUS.

Isreal would never has said such things were Regan, Bush I, or Clinton President. But Bush II, is now so weak that this can happen. The Isreali PM is calling the US their bitch. Damn, Obama and Hillary Clinton have a lot of work to do.

[okiru109]

14. why else would she abstain for voting on her own resolution?

sounds accurate to me... so the chimp went against his on SoS to suck up to the neoCON thugs of israel

[madrchsod]

15. election time in israel.....

[teknomanzer]

16. What an arrogant prick...

Though I have no doubt that what he says is true. Such a claim is certainly making it look like the USA is Israel's bitch. Which is pretty much what the Arab world has believed for some time. Now they have some definite confirmation of that. This is an epic fail in foreign policy. The Bush fuck ups will continue to his final day in office.

I used to be pro-Israel - probably because I was subjected to a shitload of propaganda - now the truth is certain. The Jewish state intends to do to the Arab population within their area of control what Hitler planned to do to the Jews in Europe - expel or exterminate them. They have gone past not seeing the irony of their actions to deliberately using the sympathy generated by the holocaust as righteous cover for their heinous actions. At this point I say fuck Israel - they should not get a single fucking cent from my tax dollars to aid them in their ethnic cleansing activities.

And for those who say I am antisemitic I say FUCK YOU! What I am is against all sick murdering fucks whether they are Arab fundamentalist terrorists, Israeli state terrorists, racist Nazi fuck terrorists, or CIA black ops Latino killing sick fuck terrorists. If you cause suffering to attain your goal then I cannot and will not support you - ever.

God damn it, now I'm pissed off before breakfast.

[Tempest]

17. Olmert's Claims Revive Spectre of "Israel Lobby"

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45401

The U.S. State Department fiercely denied claims made by Ehud Olmert about his influence over President George W. Bush, in an incident that has stirred up old debates about the role of the Israeli government and the so-called "Israel lobby" in formulating Middle East policy in Washington.

On Monday, Olmert claimed that he demanded and received an immediate conversation with President Bush, during which he convinced the president to overrule the wishes of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and abstain from a United Nations resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

In response, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Tuesday called Olmert's claims "wholly inaccurate as to describing the situation, just 100-percent, totally, completely not true". The State Department did not respond to an IPS request for further elaboration.

Olmert's comments were made in Ashkelon, a southern Israeli city that has been the target of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.

According to Olmert, he called the White House upon hearing of the upcoming U.N. Security Council resolution. "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," Olmert said, according to multiple media reports.

As a result of his conversation with President Bush, Olmert claimed, the president called Rice and forced her to abstain from voting on the measure, which she herself had helped author.