Word: olmert
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...evacuation of Gaza was supposed to be the first step in Israel's "disengagement" from the Palestinians, followed by withdrawal from settlements in the more historically and strategically important West Bank. Those plans were shelved last year by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as conflicts with militants from Hizballah and Hamas soured many Israeli officials on the idea of giving up any more ground. But Olmert is weighing a pullout again. The Bush Administration has signaled a new determination to forge a comprehensive peace between Israel and the Palestinians. And the success of those negotiations will hinge in part on whether...
...easy. Polls show that a thin majority of Israelis want to get rid of settlements. But Olmert's dismal approval ratings have forced him into a marriage of convenience with the pro-settlement right wing. A large-scale campaign to evacuate Jewish settlers could produce more clashes like the one that erupted last January in an outpost called Amona, when an army effort to dislodge a few families left 200 soldiers and settlers injured. Another outbreak of violence could bring down Olmert's centrist government, which would probably hand power to hawkish parties who are in no mood to make...
...president's looming indictment is the latest installment in a seemingly endless chain of corruption and sex scandals rocking the Israeli political establishment. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faces a criminal probe over his role in a bank privatization; the justice minister is up for sexual harassment; the finance minister for corruption, as is the country...
...retreat to his generals. By now, Peretz should have learned the first rule of military strategy: never leave your flank exposed. But that is exactly what Halutz's departure has done: With the general gone, Peretz will be next in line to take a bullet for the Lebanon fiasco. Olmert will be glad to see him go; according to an opinion poll last week, Peretz's approval rating hit bottom at 1%, a fallout over the military's inconclusive war against the Lebanese Shi'ite militia, Hizballah. (Olmert's own approval rating, of course, is only...
...Peretz now stands to lose both his job as defense minister and his position as leader of the Labor Party, the main coalition partner of Olmert's Kadima party. Peretz, too, may choose to resign instead of waiting to be sacked. Most likely, says one Peretz aide, he will wait until after the official inquiry into the Lebanon debacle, the Winograd Commission, is completed next month. If the report blames Peretz, he will then resign or consent to be moved to a lesser cabinet post, his aides say. The defense portfolio would most likely go to one of Peretz...