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Inside Israel

Olmert scores minister for saying what PM doesn't want to hear


By Stan Goodenough
December 18, 2007

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has pretty well staked his reputation on the resumption of negotiations with the Palestinian terrorist organizations, was infuriated when one of his ministers asked a question which he simply did not want to hear.

Olmert scored Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter for daring to give voice to the fears shared by many Israelis and friends of Israel when he questioned whether the Bush administration could perhaps be wrong in its assessment of the Palestinian Arabs' intentions.

If - as Israel's government maintains - Washington was wrong when its National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluded that Iran had stopped pursuing nuclear weapons in 2003, then it could just as well be wrong when it asserts that the Palestinian Arabs have made a "strategic choice for peace" with Israel, Dichter said.

Slapping the former Shin Bet director without mentioning him by name, Olmert instructed his ministers to keep their thoughts about the NIE report to themselves lest they sour Israel's relations with the White House.

According to The Jerusalem Post Tuesday, Olmert was even more angry with his defense minister, Ehud Barak, who roundly criticized US President George W. Bush for "fail[ing] in his handling of the nuclearization of Iran."

According to media reports, Barak said "the US failed in putting the brakes on the Iranian bomb. If the Iranian nuclear threat was closer to the US, like in Mexico or Cuba, the American reaction would have been much more serious."

Said a source in the Prime Minister's Office: "The prime minister and the diplomatic level do not accept such statements. It's very unfortunate that such things were said."

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