Word: olmert
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Monday morning, hundreds of Israelis milled around the Shalits' protest tent, hoping to meet the captive soldier's father, Noam, a shy, earnest man who swallows his revulsion at the media circus in hopes that it will prod outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert into agreeing to a prisoner swap with Hamas' Islamic militants so that his son will be freed. (See how Hamas is becoming harder to ignore...
Time is running out. Olmert has only a few days left in office, and he has dispatched two envoys, including Shin Bet security services chief Yuval Diskin, to Cairo for indirect talks with Hamas, which may be hung up on details of an exchange. Those talks were extended until Monday night, raising the expectation that Hamas might agree to free the captive soldier, who is hidden somewhere in Gaza. "It's been very tough," Noam Shalit told TIME. "But we can't give up. I have no alternative but to be here, in this tent." But as of Tuesday morning...
...martial democracy, where generals and war heroes often morph into politicians, but there is an ethos among Israelis that it is worth nearly any sacrifice to bring home the body of a soldier fallen in battle or one taken prisoner. Even families of terrorist victims are pleading for Olmert to strike a deal with Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and survived a 22-day pummeling by Israel earlier this year. Roni Hirshzon, who lost his son Amir in a suicide-bombing attack, said, "What is the price Hamas demands compared with the life of a soldier?" (See pictures...
...himself to promoting symbolic gestures of support for a two-state peace agreement - largely in order to win the support of Arab moderates for the U.S.'s role in Iraq and later for its stance against Iran. A series of photo opportunities, summits and declarations culminated in talks between Olmert and Abbas over what Washington termed a "shelf" agreement - that is, something that would be concluded and then shelved for a better day, when the Palestinian security situation would have been resolved to Israel's satisfaction. But none of this substantially altered the realities of the West Bank occupation, leaving...
...benign neglect shown on the Israeli-Palestinian peace effort by the Bush Administration won't be an option for the Obama Administration. But the policy pursued by the Bush White House in its final year of isolating Hamas while promoting talks about talks between Olmert and Abbas is no longer viable. Israel has tacked to the right, away from moves toward a solution based on the Arab peace plan for which Obama recently expressed support. The terms of that plan call for a two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders and sharing Jerusalem. That Palestinian bottom line...