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Olmert 'coaches' Prodi
14/12/2006 11:29 - (SA)
Jerusalem - Israeli pundits make much of
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's powers of persuasion, but this was one bit of proof that he might well have wanted to do without.
An Israeli television station broadcast candid footage on
Thursday that appeared to show Olmert, during his first official
visit to Rome, coaching Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi on
what to say during their joint press conference.
"It is important that you emphasise the three principles of
the Quartet - that they are not negotiated (sic). They are the
basis for everything," Olmert says, referring to Western demands that Hamas Islamists who run the Palestinian government soften their views before peace talks with Israel can begin.
"Please say this?" Olmert asks his nodding counterpart in English.
As it happened, Prodi did deliver words to that effect. He
further endorsed Israel's vision of remaining a Jewish state - considered code for ruling out an influx of Palestinian refugees. This, Channel 10 television suggested, was also at Olmert's prodding.
"You said something about a Jewish state (in the past). I
know that," Olmert is shown telling Prodi as the two confer in what looks like a lounge in an Italian government complex.
While allies co-ordinating their rhetoric is nothing new in
international diplomacy, the unvarnished glimpse into Olmert's back-room lobbying may prove a fresh embarrassment at home.
Before Rome, Olmert was in Berlin. That visit was marked by
Israeli furore at a German television interview in which he
seemed to confirm, in a reversal of a decades-old secrecy
policy, that Israel has the Middle East's only nuclear weapons.
An Olmert spokesperson insisted he had not abandoned Israel's
"ambiguity" over its assumed arsenal, but that did not stop opposition lawmakers of various political stripes from calling for his resignation.
Olmert and Prodi aides had no immediate comment on the
Channel 10 footage.
- Reuters
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