Word: barak
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...politics by other means" may have been coined by Carl von Clausewitz in 19th century Prussia, but it was given new meaning during Israel's 22-day offensive in Gaza. The troika of Israeli decision-makers that ran the military campaign - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak (leader of the Labor Party) and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (who replaced Olmert as leader of the Kadima party because of his impending corruption case) - are fierce political rivals. "If they were together on an island in a Survivor episode," says Reuven Hazan, a political scientist at the Hebrew University, "they...
...Olmert wanted to prolong the Gaza war to do more damage to Hamas, in the hope of repairing his legacy that had been badly tarnished during Israel's botched 2006 war in Lebanon and by police allegations of corruption. Livni and Barak, both of whom are running for Olmert's job, wanted to end it earlier. But the two candidates differed on how to end it: Barak, a former general himself and ex-premier, argued that a cease-fire concluded with Hamas would be more durable. But Livni argued for a unilateral pullout from Gaza, having dealt the territory...
...Still, Barak ended up ahead in this game of political Survivor. The latest polls show that most Israelis approved of the defense minister's cautious but methodical assault on Gaza, and his party's projected third-place share of the coming vote, according to polling by the Channel One news network, jumped from below 10 Knesset seats to around 15 seats. (In Israel, the party that wins the most seats in the 120-seat Knesset is tapped to form a government, and because the winner rarely attains a simple majority, it typically forms a coalition.) Livni's Kadima party, however...
...regardless of the outcome of the Olmert-Livni-Barak tussle within the war cabinet, the biggest winner from the Gaza campaign was Benyamin Netanyahu, leader of the hawkish opposition Likud party and front-runner in the polls, who watched the Gaza war from the sidelines and saw his own lead over Livni wider to a margin of 33 seats to her party...
...regime change" option is even reported to have support from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who sees it as a way to restore the control over all Palestinian territories of his peace partner, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Skeptics, including Barak and Livni, warn that pursuing regime change would require the Israeli military operation to continue for months, risking diplomatic isolation and a dramatic increase in casualties. And the Israeli security establishment is justifiably skeptical of the prospects for reimposing the already enfeebled Abbas on a hostile Gaza. Rather than boost his power, the latest confrontation has further marginalized Abbas. Even...