Olmert-Bush Meeting, Why its Important

Ehud Olmert, is the Prime Minister of Israel. George Bush is the President of the United States of America, they often speak and have had open communication the entire time they have been in office, so what makes this meeting so special?

Both P.M. Olmert, and Pres. Bush are in a "Lame Duck" status. A Lame Duck is an elected official who is approaching the end of his tenure, and especially an official whose successor has already been elected.

Its important because a lame duck president or prime minister, dont usually carry high expectations this late in the game (leaving office in weeks to a months time), however in this case, we could be wrong.

London's Sunday Times claimed to have the real answer in a report citing intelligence sources who suggested Olmert and Bush will be hammering out final details of an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

According to the sources, the prospect of an Israeli strike on Iran's main nuclear facilities before US President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in on January 20 has become significantly more likely.

Israel is convinced Obama does not intend to exert the kind of pressure needed to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions, and certainly will not exercise a military option.

That leaves Israel few options but to exercise its own military option, and if Jerusalem decides to attack it will need at least the tacit cooperation of the US, which controls most of the airspace between Israel and Iran.

Few topics would be urgent enough for two lame duck leaders like Olmert and Bush to get together weeks before both are out of office. But the prospect of Iran building a nuclear weapon within months and Israel needing to eliminate any chance of that happening would be such a topic.

(story)