Word: hawkishness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...million is today divided into 5.4 million Jews and 1.6 million Arabs. But if you include Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank, they may already have a slender majority; and given their higher birthrate, the gap will widen quickly. This tectonic shift in demographics is what scared even hawkish Israelis like former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon into abandoning the biblical dreams of a Greater Israel stretching all the way from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. As Olmert recently warned, "If we are determined to preserve the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel, we must inevitably...
...have to swallow will be determined by the impact, in Gaza and beyond, of the ongoing clash of bombs, bullets, rockets and images. After that will come the battle to shape the perception of victory. Israelis go to the polls next month to pick a new government, and more hawkish politicians may accuse Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Livni (both of whom are running for Prime Minister) of failing to finish the job. That, and the probability that the cease-fire will include a mechanism for reopening the border crossings, makes the Islamists believe that, despite the casualty count...
...close quarters with the militants, disrupting their structures and their chain of command and killing more of their fighters - even at the cost of Israeli casualties. They also fear that the coming Israeli election - in which both Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni are candidates, but the more hawkish Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu is the front runner - may be complicating Israel's decision-making. So even if the window of opportunity is closing, there may yet be a brief ground incursion...
...that the punishment inflicted on Gaza by Israel will prompt Palestinians to turn on Hamas. So far, the smart money says that Abbas is paying the higher political price. By contrast, Israel's current leaders may have slightly improved their chances of reeling in the lead of the more hawkish former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the February election - although that could change if the operation ends badly from an Israeli point of view...
...appears to have underestimated Israel's readiness to launch a military campaign in response to an escalation of Palestinian rocket fire onto Israel's southern towns and cities. This is, however, an Israeli election season in which polls show voters moving so quickly to the right that even the hawkish front runner, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, is losing support to parties more extreme than his own. Still, the factors that restrained Israel from launching an attack on Gaza until now remain in place, and the likelihood of an escalation in the confrontation in the days and weeks ahead...