Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn is happy that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is resigning in September.

“It’s long overdue,” he said in a brief telephone interview this morning. “My God, you need a prime minister who can function, who can lead, who can be strong, who can direct. I think everyone realizes that Ehud Olmert was facing so many different issues and was such a weak leader—he did the right thing.”

Hikind said that he follows the polls in Israel regularly, and that “George W. Bush is extremely popular in America compared to the poll figures of Ehud Olmert’s in Israel over the past year.”

Which, based on numbers here and here, and here, is credible.

Hikind, it should be said, is no fan of Olmert. He's a Netanyahu man.

Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn will introduce former Republican Governor Mike Huckabee at a Manhattan dinner tonight honoring the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel.

According to the press release, headlined "HIKIND & HUCKABEE," the two will appear at the Jerusalem Reclamation Project Dinner at 7:30 p.m. at the Marriott.  read more »

In his remarks moments ago at a Gracie Mansion ceremony celebrating Jewish heritage month, departing Israeli consul general Arye Mekel pointedly reminded Michael Bloomberg that the last mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, went on to become head of state.

When Bloomberg got up to the microphone, he responded by saying that “only one of the Jerusalem mayors went on to lead the country – and Rudy would be happy to do it.”

Here's an ad you might not expect to see from a mere Assembly member. It's from Dov Hikind in this week's Jewish Press, calling on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step down.

According to the message at the bottom of the ad, it was paid for by a Brooklyn-based non-profit group called Yad Moshe, which lists Hikind as its sole contact and may or may not be related to a similarly named organization that got moneyfrom Hikind's political action committee.

The new ingredient is that the Saudis now view Israel as facing the same threat they now confront: Shiite radicalism. While before they simply said that Israel should just do whatever the Palestinians want to end the conflict, now they are saying that they will work with both Israelis and Palestinians to craft a solution.

That is the meaning of the meeting which Yediot Ahronoth reports took place two weeks ago between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and a top Saudi official. Yediot reports the meeting took place in Jordanian King Abdullah's Amman palace late at night... The only details Yediot has are these: "The main issue was the threat posed by Iran's attempts to obtain nuclear weapons and spread Shiite terror in the region. Olmert and his hosts reached an understanding at the meeting that secret intelligence cooperation should be continued against the Iranian threats."

...If these reports are correct, and most observers believe they are, the Saudis are working with Israel to defuse the greatest single threat to Israel's existence, that of a nuclear Iran. This is a development that would have been unimaginable a few years ago when Saudi Arabia was the de facto head of the rejectionist front.