Friday, January 16, 2009

Too good not to boast about it

In a recent post we saw how US Secretary of State Condi Rice planned to vote in favor of the Gaza ceasefire resolution at the UN, but president Bush overruled her after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told him to. The US eventually abstained in the vote.

After Olmert publicly boasted of his feat, US diplomats tried to do the understandable damage control, denying that the abstention had to do with any suggestion from Israel's PM. However, neutral observers who witnessed the whole process have, according to a Haaretz article, confirmed Olmert's version. The Haaretz piece ends with this observation:

Olmert's associates understand all too well that this story merely provides fresh ammunition to those who claim the Jews are the ones who really control America.

Well, yes, it sort of looks like, no? Unless Prince Bandar has achieved unprecedented levels of subtlety in his Machiavelian schemes, this is definitely not a product of the all-powerful Saudi lobby.

It is not the first time that Israeli officials are candid, or, euphemisms aside, cynical about the US's servile attitude. In a very juicy interview given in 2006, Dov Weisglass, Ariel Sharon's foreign policy adviser, had this to say:

The channel between [US Secretary of State] Rice and me has two main purposes. One is to advance processes that are initiated, to examine our ideas and their ideas. The road map, for example, or the disengagement plan. But there is an equally important function, which is troubleshooting. If something happens - an unusual military operation, a hitch, a targeted assassination that succeeded or one that didn't succeed - before it becomes an imbroglio, she calls me and says, `We saw so-and-so on CNN. What's going on?' And I say, `Condy, the usual 10 minutes?' She laughs and we hang up. Ten minutes later, after I find out what happened, I get back to her and tell her the whole truth. The whole truth. I tell her and she takes it down: this is what we intended, this is how it came out. She doesn't get worked up. She believes us. The continuation is damage control.

Correct me if I'm being antisemitic, but this amounts to stating that when Israel fucks it up, the US rushes to do the face-saving for them.

Maybe the Israelis have decided not to deny anymore that they exercise an out-of-all-proportion influence on the US. But it may also be that when you have the Secretary of State of the most powerful nation in history as your errand girl, it becomes somehow difficult not to brag about it.

2 comments:

Jack Steiner said...

This is B.S. Olmert is an idiot to claim it, but believe me the US doesn't jump because Israel asks.

If it did things would be far different.

Of course people like to believe otherwise because they like to claim that Israel receives unfair treatment.

Of course there are a million other lobbies and countries that receive aid. Egypt and the 2 billion a year they receive come to mind.

Medicine said...

Olmert's associates understand all too well that this story merely provides fresh ammunition to those who claim the Jews are the ones who really control America.