Condoleezza Rice may have been hung out to dry at the United Nations’s Security Council’s Gaza vote last week. Well, that’s what Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says, at least.

The Israeli Prime Minister bragged to reporters that he bypassed Rice by calling President Bush and telling the United States to abstain from the cease-fire resolution — a resolution Rice herself had drafted for three days. Fourteen of the Security Council’s 15 members supported the failed resolution, which aimed to end Israel’s offensive into Gaza and called for an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal. Most thought the United States would vote with the other Council members, but Olmert got Rice to crumble.

Boasted the Israeli leader, "[Bush] gave an order to the secretary of state and she did not vote in favor of it — a resolution she cooked up, phrased, organized and maneuvered for. She was left pretty shamed and abstained on a resolution she arranged. She was left pretty embarrassed."

The State Department, meanwhile, tells a different tale. One official told the AP, flat-out, "Mr. Olmert is wrong."

Rice makes no mention of alleged Olmert meddling, and remarked that the vote was "not an easy decision, but a right one." She refused to say much else. "I am not going to talk about anything more than that except to say I think you know my relationship with the president," she said. "I have a relationship in which we can discuss these things and come to the best decision."

In addition to his claims, Olmert joked that Bush didn’t know the resolution’s language, and took his advice quite blindly. While surely we can’t know what actually transpired, it seems Olmert may simply be trying to discredit Rice for aligning against his nation. And, unfortunately, the violence in Gaza continues into its 18th day. An estimated 900 Palestinians have been killed, and the others live in fear.