Word: olmert
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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 is not a humble man. In a country where leaders typically make their mark on the battlefield, 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...
...withdrawal from the West Bank probably won't start for a year, say Kadima party insiders. Until then, Olmert will try coaxing settlers to leave voluntarily so that he can avoid the ugly eviction scenes of the past year, when ultra-Orthodox squatters hurled stones at Israeli security forces and called them "Nazis." But most of all, Olmert will be waiting to see if Hamas softens its stance towards Israel. It hasn't done...
...marks a new chapter in Israel's history. Voters have shown themselves willing to sacrifice the ancient dream of a Greater Israel?stretching from the sea to the Jordan River?and to make room for a separate Palestinian state. That is a painful but pragmatic recognition of realities, as Olmert himself admits. A portion of his election-night speech was directed to his fan in Khartoum?Abbas. "We are ready to compromise and give up parts of our land that we love," Olmert said, "where the best of our sons and fighters are buried and, with a heavy heart...
...many Israelis, those words were stirring stuff. But they don't seem to have cut much ice with Hamas. Leaders of the Islamic party are incensed by a key facet of Olmert's disengagement plan: If Hamas refuses to accept Israel's right to exist, the Israelis will draw up permanent borders without the Palestinians' consent. "Why should we recognize Israel," Aziz Dweik, a Hamas member and the new speaker of the Palestinian parliament, told TIME, "when Israel won't recognize our existence?" Israel, for its part, will not talk to Hamas until the militants abandon their vow to destroy...