Saying the Loud Part Quiet and the Quiet Part Loud

This is the kind of thing that Ehud Olmert shouldn’t talk about, even if it’s true:

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 didn’t 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.

I understand that this is primarily for Israeli domestic consumption; being able to demonstrate that the President of the United States is his bitch (forgive me…) is going to help Olmert’s party in next month’s election. I rather think, though, that the Israel lobby (such that it is) acts more effectively for Israel’s interest when people pretend publicly that it doesn’t exist.

Via Matt.