Yep, I'm sure the Prime Minister of Israel, incompetent as he is, would tell a room full of flunkies including a Muslim activist from the U.S. to negotiate with Assad for him. I'm sure Israel has no other decent means of getting its message through than by using travelling bands of diplo-tourists and their media carnival.
And I really love the part where Ellison says "Olmert told us not to tell Syria that Israel wasn't willing to attack them". Classic made-up storytelling. A five year old child would be proud of that one.
If I read this correctly, Ellison claimed that "[Olmert] told us to tell [Assad] that he was not planning to attack [Syria]." Either Ellison was making this up out of whole cloth or Olmert was making a bad tactical error. I would agree that the probablity of the first scenario is much greater than the second.