American Middle East Policy In A Nutshell

Isreali Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is bragging about how he ordered United States President George W. Bush to abstain from the UN Security Council resolution calling for a cease fire in Gaza. He is also bragging about how he shamed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

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 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."

Now, this would be shocking in any other context. But, with the United States Congress offering unconditional support to Israel’s assault on Gaza, Ehud Olmert’s statements should not surprise anyone.

This is why the rest of the world does not consider the United States an "honest broker" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.