Word: olmert
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sit down with other Arab leaders and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a forthcoming Middle East summit in Annapolis, Md., the future of Jerusalem, a city holy to three religions, will be a constant shadow over the negotiations. Palestinians have long demanded that the eastern part of the city should be the capital of the state of which they have dreamed for decades. For Jews, who pined 2,000 years for Jerusalem, victory in the Six-Day War of 1967--and with it, control over the whole...
...anti-Israel organizations and permit the Israeli flag to fly high from a potential Israeli embassy in downtown Damascus, Assad should visit the land of his mortal enemy. Only by addressing the Knesset, by visiting Yad Vashem, and by shaking hands in public with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, can he demonstrate that his talk is not mere lip service. The Israeli people no longer trust Arab leaders at their word; they must prove their credibility and desire for peace through their deeds. By taking the political and personal risk of flying to Jerusalem, Assad will have taken the road...
...neighborhoods to a Palestinian state and possibly ceding control over the Temple Mount. Predictably, the notion - last floated at the end of 2000 as the outgoing President Clinton sought to save the Oslo peace process - inflamed Israeli right-wingers. Some key coalition partners threatened to bolt Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's governing coalition, and some religious leaders vowed to mobilize mass protests. But the difficulties that the Israelis will face in even discussing the sharing of Jerusalem - a Palestinian bottom line - were only one factor complicating Rice's mission. In the same week, the Israeli army announced it had seized...
...Rice, it seems, took note of the potential of such moves to sabotage her effort. Shortly after her arrival, she said "We have to be very careful ... about actions and statements that erode confidence." At the same time, however, Olmert's office announced it had received assurances that Rice would not push Israel to do "anything that will not be acceptable to it." That came as Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas were sparring over the need for and nature of a document addressing the contours of a possible solution, including "final statutes issues" such as Jerusalem, the fate...
...Each man's position reflects his political reality. It would be politically perilous for Olmert, still enjoying the approval of no more than a quarter of Israelis, to commit himself on such hot-button issues while Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party waits to pounce on any perceived misstep. That has forced Rice to wade neck-deep into Israeli politics, meeting with two key conservative faction leaders in Olmert's coalition - Eli Yishai of the Shas Party and Avigdor Lieberman of Yisreal Beitenu, who have warned Olmert that they would bolt if he goes too far on any of the final...