Word: ehud
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...just past 11 on a brilliant Jerusalem morning, and Ehud Olmert is sitting down for breakfast. Olmert lives on a serene block in the city's German Colony, in an airy three-story town house decorated with canvases painted by his wife Aliza. As Olmert serves cucumber salad and Aliza offers to make omelettes--to go with the smoked salmon, roasted vegetables, olives and cheese--it's easy to forget that the couple across the table is the most powerful in Israel. Easy, that is, until you spot the six-person security detail posted outside the front door. And until...
...leader. In last month's general election, Kadima won more seats in parliament than any other party, cementing Olmert's claim as Prime Minister--and capping a run of political fortune that has left counterparts numb with disbelief and possibly jealousy. "Winning the lottery is easier to contemplate than Ehud ever becoming Prime Minister," says Yossi Sarid, formerly of the left-wing Meretz Party, who has known Olmert for 30 years. "But being lucky is very important. And to be Prime Minister of Israel, you need a little luck...
...Israeli right, which long subscribed to the vision of creating "Eretz Ysrael," extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the banks of the Jordan River. Olmert's father served in the Knesset in the 1950s as a member of the Herut Party, a forerunner of the right-wing Likud. Ehud studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was elected to the Knesset in 1973 as the youngest Likud member. Olmert launched crusades against corruption in professional soccer and, later, against organized crime. Israelis credit Olmert's generation with bringing transparency to the clubby, Old World atmosphere of Israeli politics...
That meant throwing support behind the idea of evacuating settlements in the occupied territories, a position long championed by Israeli doves, including Aliza Olmert. She says she voted for her husband's party for the first time last month. "The situation made right-wingers like Ehud realize that sooner or later we had to negotiate, or in the worst case act unilaterally," says Aliza. "And the experience of living with someone like me, with a lefty-oriented position, can be powerful." When Olmert steps away from the table, Aliza says Ehud's frequent absence from home made their five children...
...Khartoum for an Arab league summit last week, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas received hourly dispatches on the vote in the Israel elections. There was no secret about who he wanted to win: Ehud Olmert, leader of the centrist Kadima party, and political heir to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has lain in a coma since January. Olmert's party did better than any other; but Kadima scooped up just 29 of the 120 seats in the Knesset. Opinion polls before the vote had suggested that it would win nearly 40. "I wish Olmert had more seats," Abbas told his aides...