Word: ehud
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...their followers continue to shoot at one another back home. Not least to the negotiators themselves, it appears, following reports that the suits on both sides almost came to blows in Thursday's session. But conventional wisdom holds that a peace deal with the Palestinians remains the key to Ehud Barak's chances of reelection, and that has encouraged an unlikely optimism among some observers of the talks. Still, the Israeli election on February 6 gives the talks an air of unreality - even if they do manage to seal a deal, it'll only survive if Barak wins, and right...
...Bollings Air Force base in Washington must feel like an insulated bubble to the diplomats dispatched by both sides to search for a deal. Arch-hawk Ariel Sharon is somewhere between 11 and 18 percent ahead of prime minister Ehud Barak in the polls, which casts a very real shadow over the talks in Washington. After all, the very basis of Sharon's campaign is rejection of Barak's peacemaking efforts as naïve and dangerous, leaving the Palestinian negotiators with the realization that the chances of their Israeli counterparts' being able to deliver on any undertakings are slim...
...Israel's doves opted to back Ehud Barak, although the strength of the challenge by Shimon Peres suggests they're not exactly bullish about the prime minister. The leftist Meretz party ended Peres's hopes late Thursday, by declining to nominate him as a candidate in Israel's prime ministerial election on February 6. That's good news for Barak, whose supporters have been pleading with Meretz to support the prime minister so as to avoid splitting the peace camp, although the strength of the challenge by arch-dove Peres bodes ill for Barak's efforts to regain the confidence...
Israelis don't vote for their leaders so much as against their opponents. And that makes an Ehud Barak-Ariel Sharon showdown for prime minister a tight contest, because both men have high negative ratings for their record in Israeli leadership. And with the likelihood of a much smaller turnout than in a full parliamentary election, the race may be too close to call despite Sharon's substantial lead in the polls...
Boris Yeltsin always survived impeachment votes in a parliament heavily stacked against him for one simple reason - the legislators wanted to keep their jobs, and ousting him would have meant new elections. Now Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak may have benefited from a similar effect. His most dangerous challenger, Benjamin Netanyahu, bowed out of the February election Monday, citing the legislature's refusal to vote for a full new election. Instead, the Knesset voted on a special "Bibi Bill" to allow any citizen to run in February's poll, which is only for the post of prime minister...