Word: olmert
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...unlikely, even desperate courtship, born of one partner's need and an opportunity for the other. But despite the warnings and protests of skeptics, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has drawn radical right-winger Avigdor Lieberman into his coalition cabinet...
...Questions over how long such an alliance could survive and how badly it would alienate Olmert's other coalition partners have dominated the media here for weeks. After all, Olmert's government is built on the premise of partially withdrawing settlers from territories in the West Bank, while Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party is better known for advocating a policy of revoking the citizenship of Israel's Arab minority. Still, despite the many risks, there are also potential gains for the beleaguered Prime Minister. Having failed to score a decisive victory over Hizballah and with the conflicts...
...imprisonment. His is hardly the first high-level political scandal in Israel: Several past presidents, cabinet ministers and prime ministers have been investigated for financial improprieties; ex-Justice Minister Haim Ramon resigned this past August after being indicted for sexual harassment. But that won't lessen the sting for Olmert, who has seen his support nosedive this year as more and more Israelis have lost faith in their leaders...
...Olmert's management of the Lebanon War continues to be intensely criticized. The main plank of his election campaign - the promise to withdraw roughly one third of West Bank settlers and the consolidation of the rest behind an expanded security barrier - has been put in the deep freeze by the crises in Lebanon and Gaza. Questions have arisen about the propriety of a real estate deal he made years ago. And he's generating further controversy by seeking to bolster his shaky ruling coalition through courting a far-right political faction leader, Avigdor Lieberman, who has called for the forced...
...Katsav and Olmert, like the Israeli public will have to wait for the Attorney General's decision, but given the difficulties of recent months, it's hard to imagine this coming at a worse time. Personally, Katsav is watching his career and his reputation fall apart, and he may lose his freedom as well. Politically, Olmert is being battered by political winds in and out of his control. Perhaps he's staring at the ground in that photo because he's worried about what's coming up next...