Word: ehud
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...Tuesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with his security cabinet to figure out the terrible equation of how hard Israel should strike back against Gaza when one of these homemade rockets brings death to Sderot. The collateral damage could include President George W. Bush's proposed Middle East peace summit in November, since a major Israeli strike against Gaza would inevitably prompt a stay-away by the moderate Arab states on whose support Washington is counting - Egypt, Jordan and possibly Saudi Arabia...
...Bush Administration and the rest of the international community for Israel to withdraw many of its Jewish citizens from 220 hilltop settlements and outposts in the disputed West Bank, such a move could be so divisive in Israel that no Prime Minister, especially one as embattled as Ehud Olmert, would risk it. Olmert won the March 2006 election in part by vowing to remove large numbers of settlements. But public opinion shifted against him after last summer's bungled war in Lebanon, and now he is too unpopular to try uprooting thousands of angry Jewish settlers, even though Israel...
This manpower shortage led Defense Minister Ehud Barak to complain recently that the IDF was no longer "the army of the people but of half the people." That leaves new Russian and Ethiopian immigrants, along with religious Zionists, to fill the ranks. Meanwhile, to ensure that the IDF remains a melting pot, some generals say that special units, comprised of religious Zionists who spend two-thirds of their time in religious studies, should be more integrated into the regular army...
...military is clearly concerned that the Hebron mini-insurrection may be a warning of what could occur on a wider scale if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tries to remove some of dozens oF illegal settlements in the West Bank, as demanded by the international community and the United States. Tuesday's operation, after all, involved the eviction of only two families, but required over 3,000 troops and policemen. The evacuation of an entire settlement, some officers say privately, could lead to widespread dissent within the army ranks...
...return - and have made no secret of their reluctance to discuss the most contentious issues at this stage. That doesn't bode well for Bush's summit. Privately, one minister's aide described Rice's trip as "about as useful as grinding dust," but he said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government had to go through the motions of complying with Washington. Politically, Olmert is too weak to be starting closing down the West Bank settlements that house around 250,000 Israelis. Also, Israelis doubt that Abbas, especially after his defeat in Gaza, can deliver on promises to curb...