Word: olmert
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...Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert believes he knows the answer. In an interview with TIME, Olmert described Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh as "a terrorist" and accused him of personally masterminding the transfer of $1 million in funds from overseas for "terrorist actions against Israeli citizens." Olmert's remarks were seen by many Palestinians as an attempt by Israelis to discredit the Palestinian unity government...
...Olmert's wariness over Hamas is shared by U.S. and Palestinian officials. They told TIME that Hamas - despite its public commitment to a new coalition government with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas - has used a five-month cease-fire with Israeli forces to stage an unprecedented arms build-up in the Gaza strip. "They're armed to the teeth," said one senior U.S. official. "This is not like your average little militia." Indeed, one Israeli official said that, in recent months, Hamas has sent "dozens" of militants to Iran for advanced training in weapons that can destroy aircraft and tanks. Hamas...
...that it receives aid from Iran but insists that the money is used for running the Palestinian government, crippled by international sanctions imposed in March 2006 after Hamas' election victory. Says Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad: "Money we've received has been transferred to the finance ministry, and we challenge Olmert to come out with one single proof that we've used this money for terrorism...
...Although on her latest Middle East shuttle she managed to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to agree on holding regular meetings, Rice's efforts to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace are looking more like crisis management than visionary deal-making. She had hesitated to spell out exactly what she meant by "bold outreach," but had urged the Arab leaders heading for Riyadh to not merely to endorse a formula for peace - the Arab League's Beirut initiative, first adopted in 2002, calls for full peace and normalization of relations if Israel withdraws from Arab lands...
There is another grand gesture open to Olmert, but it dare not speak its name--mostly because the U.S. doesn't want it to happen. Various Israelis have been quietly talking about opening peace talks with Syria--which actually does have some power over the Palestinian extremists, since it allows the militant wing of Hamas to be based in Damascus. The deal seems obvious: Syria gets back the Golan Heights. Israel gets recognized. Hamas gets the boot. Two years ago, Syrian President Bashar Assad told me he wanted to reopen talks with the Israelis. When I asked Olmert about Assad...