Word: jerusalem
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...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...
...Olmert has distinguished himself more by relentless self-assurance and urbane tastes, which run from Cuban cigars to effulgent designer ties. At 60, he has spent his life in the public eye, first emerging as a young corruption fighter in the Israeli parliament and later serving as mayor of Jerusalem. In 2003, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister under Ariel Sharon, but few Israelis thought Olmert had much chance to succeed his boss, given Olmert's image as a remote, high-living élitist. As recently as March 2005, just 13% of Israelis in a poll wanted Olmert for their...
...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. "We changed the rules of play," says...
...business community landed him in the middle of numerous scandals, including a case stemming from the 1988 election campaign in which he was accused of conspiring with other Likud officials to skirt campaign-finance restrictions. Though he was acquitted in 1997, Olmert gained a reputation for cynicism. As Jerusalem mayor, he initiated improvements such as a light-rail system but ran up huge deficits and bequeathed the city a legacy of half-finished development projects. In 1996, he pushed for the opening of a tunnel beneath the contested Temple Mount, a move that sparked clashes between police and Palestinians that...
...violence was a harbinger of the second Palestinian intifadeh, during which Jerusalem withstood a regular onslaught of suicide bombings. "I've seen more attacks and more blood than any political leader anyplace," Olmert says. "There were attacks in almost every corner of the city. I've met with dozens of victims. It's something that comes back to me time and time again." Olmert says the experience "re-emphasized the need for separation" from the Palestinians...