Word: olmert
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...reported as saying that moment will come at 7am on Monday - to drive deep into Lebanon to draw whatever blood and teeth as they can from Hizballah. Even that may not be enough to sway an Israeli public openly doubtful that the war has been won. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has seen his poll numbers take a dive similar to those of President Bush, from upward of 70 percent approval to figures in the low 40s - except that while Bush's slide occurred over the four years that followed 9/11, Olmert's came in just four weeks...
...That confidence nose-dived earlier this week after Olmert and his ministers began quarrelling furiously over the course of the war. A once decisive prime minister was looking dithery. A major ground offensive was twice postponed by Olmert, though there were reports Friday that Olmert had finally decided to go forward with the operation. The Israeli press reported scalding rows between Olmert and his foreign minister - who pressed for a diplomatic solution when Olmert was pondering an all-out attack - and between Olmert and the defense minister and his army generals, who wanted to land a major blow against Hizballah...
...Chief of Staff, Haltuz may end up taking most of the blame. A no-nonsense fighter pilot who was the favorite of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - to the extent that some insiders say Sharon was grooming Halutz, not Olmert, to replace him some day as prime minister - Halutz, 58, at first impressed Israelis with his Top Gun swagger and aviator glasses. Once asked how it felt to drop a bomb on people, he replied: " I feel a light bump to the plane as a result of the bomb's release. A second later and it's gone, and that...
...With tanks revving their engines and over 20,000 troops already inside Lebanon, Olmert has had good reason to be cautious about an expanded ground invasion. As of Friday, the war has cost 124 Israeli lives, 84 of them soldiers. The 1982 Lebanon war bogged Israeli forces down in Lebanon for 18 years and was a disaster. Olmert was told that a major thrust 14 miles north to the Litani river and beyond, as envisioned by Halutz and the other generals, could drag on for another six weeks and leave hundreds of Israeli soldiers dead. Worst of all, the generals...
...with its two Israeli hostages.) But many Israelis are worried that if they stop fighting now, they will have lost a weapon far more valuable than any "bunker-buster" - the Israeli army's aura of invincibility. And for that loss in this Lebanese war, more than any other casualty, Olmert and his top generals may pay dearly. - With reporting by Jamil Hamad/Nablus and Aaron J. Klein/Jerusalem