Does Israel have influence over U.S. foreign policy?

[Bo]

Rice shame-faced by Bush over UN Gaza vote: Olmert

JERUSALEM (AFP) – US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was left shame-faced after President George W. Bush ordered her to abstain in a key UN vote on the Gaza war, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday.
"She was left shamed. A resolution that she prepared and arranged, and in the end she did not vote in favour," Olmert said in a speech in the southern town of Ashkelon.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution last Thursday calling for an immediate ceasefire in the three-week-old conflict in the Gaza Strip and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza where hundreds have been killed.
Fourteen of the council's 15 members voted in favour of the resolution, which was later rejected by both Israel and Hamas.
The United States, Israel's main ally, had initially been expected to voted in line with the other 14 but Rice later became the sole abstention.
"In the night between Thursday and Friday, when the secretary of state wanted to lead the vote on a ceasefire at the Security Council, we did not want her to vote in favour," Olmert said.
"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.
"I told him the United States could not vote in favour. It cannot vote in favour of such a resolution. He immediately called the secretary of state and told her not to vote in favour."
Bush has consistently placed the blame for the conflict on Hamas, telling reporters on Monday that while he wanted to see a "sustainable ceasefire" in Gaza, it was up to Hamas to choose to end its rocket fire on Israel.
But a US State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, denied Olmert's claim.
"Mr. Olmert is wrong," the official said.
Even if everything had gone according to plan, "she would have abstained. That was the plan," said the official. "The government of Israel does not make US policy."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090112/pl_afp/mideastconflictgazaolmertusrice_newsmlmmd

I wonder if any other country's PM could call up President Bush and tell him how to vote at the UN Security Council? 

 

[Edward Campbell]

Israel has two huge advantages when dealing with the US:

• A large, loyal, politically active and savvy domestic fifth column working on its behalf; and

• Nuclear weapons that the US believes Israel will use, without consultation, when it feels the need.

Other countries have large, politically active diasporas – India, for example, but none is as well known as the Israeli/Jewish lobby. But, bear in mind, that:

• Jews are anything but monolithic. Not all Jews support Israel; few offer anything like uncritical support; and

• The Arabs have more money and they, too, are politically active –especially in funding candidates and on publicizing their grievances and Israel’s transgressions. The Arabs are winning the PR war, but Israel is doing a good job at keeping the Iran issue high on the agenda.

The second issue, nuclear weapons and a perception, at least, that Israel will not accept US guidance on their use, is, probably, a more potent force.

The Israelis can destroy everything the Americans value in the Middle East. In fact the Israelis can destroy a lot of the Middle East, period. I think the Israelis work very, very hard to persuade one and all that they have a 100% independent nuclear strike capability and that they, and only they, will decide when, where and how to use them – based solely on the Israeli government’s perception of Israel’s vital interests. So long as the US President believes that to be true the Israeli PM can get him on the phone.

But, if it's true, it’s not something that one wants to do too often, I think and I also think that Olmert is a fool to brag about it – even in the dying days of the Bush administration. Americans don’t like being kicked around and I guarantee that President Elect Obama is somewhat rankled by the story – true or not.

 

[belka]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090112/pl_afp/mideastconflictgazaolmertusrice_newsmlmmd

I wonder if any other country's PM could call up President Bush and tell him how to vote at the UN Security Council? 

The US has already called this story 100% BS and untrue.

 

[Michael OLeary]

The US has already called this story 100% BS and untrue.

It doesn't have to be true for the conspiracy theorists to pick it up and run with it as if it were so. 

 

[Edward Campbell]

It's not the first time a similar story has run. It's a fairly common way to attempt to drive a wedge between America and Israel.

But, Israelis politicians do like to brag about their influence - especially to domestic audiences when elections loom. I heard it done about 20+ years ago, to a largely English speaking audience up near Caesarea. And another but: Badmouthing the Americans is just as unattractive when Israelis do it as it is when done by Canadians.

Ultimately it is also foolish.

 

[old medic]

There were other stories similar to this, about US -Israeli relations being strained in major US papers roughly a week ago.
I didn't bother posting them here, as it is impossible to gather and discuss everything that is going on there right now.

 

[old medic]

Example :


U.S. blocked Israeli raid on Iran, officials say
The Washington Post
By Karen DeYoung
10:25 PM CST, January 10, 2009

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush last year rejected an Israeli request to provide sophisticated, deep-penetration bombs to attack Iran's underground nuclear enrichment facilities, Pentagon officials said Saturday.

The administration also rebuffed Israel's plan to fly through U.S.-controlled Iraqi airspace to reach the Iranian site, officials said. The Israelis had not proposed a date for an attack, and it was not clear how far along the planning was when the requests were made, officials said.

The Israeli requests were first reported online by The New York Times on Saturday.

The Times also said that Bush, seeking to deflect the Israelis and to soften his refusal, told the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he had authorized a new covert action program to sabotage Iran's uranium enrichment program. The report quoted U.S. officials as saying that some actions had been taken as part of what it described as an ongoing covert program but that they had not seriously affected Iranian operations. Israel, the United States and principal European allies have charged that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program, a charge Tehran has denied.

Officials with the Israeli Embassy and the CIA declined to comment Saturday night as did Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council.

The covert efforts, which began in early 2008, involved plans to penetrate Iran's nuclear supply chain abroad and undermine electrical systems and other networks on which Iran relies, the Times said, citing interviews with current and former U.S. officials, outside experts and international nuclear inspectors who spoke on condition of anonymity. The covert program will be handed off to President-elect Barack Obama, who will decide whether to continue it.

Some factions within the Bush administration have long advocated a U.S. military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, but military leaders and others have argued against it on the grounds that it could endanger U.S. troops in the region and spark a broader war in the Middle East, and that it would probably only temporarily set back Iran's efforts.

Iran's Natanz complex houses several underground structures containing gas centrifuges to enrich uranium.

Israel made the push for permission to fly over Iraq for an attack on Iran following its anger over a U.S. intelligence assessment in late 2007 that concluded Iran had effectively suspended its development of nuclear weapons four years earlier.

 

[Bo]

The US has already called this story 100% BS and untrue.

Here's the link you're probably referring to:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090113/pl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_olmert_usa_1??

The only thing that's mentioned by the white house spokesperson is that the reports were inaccurate. Nothing said about it being "100% BS". Olmert's speech was recorded and is accurate. This doesn't sound like a conspiracy theory to me.

Arab ministers said after the U.N. vote Thursday that Rice had promised them the United States would support the resolution, but then made an apparent about-face after talking to Bush.
A few minutes before the scheduled vote at the United Nations, Rice's staff told reporters she would make a few brief comments beforehand, but then abruptly canceled her press appearance, saying she would instead speak to Bush by phone.
The vote was delayed while other ministers waited for Rice to finish the call. She then entered the U.N. Security Council chamber, huddled with Arab ministers who shook their heads as she spoke to them.
Immediately after the vote, Rice left for Washington without talking to waiting reporters. Her spokesman did not return repeated calls and e-mail over why Rice had reneged on her promise to Arab leaders to back the vote.