Word: olmert
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Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert knows that the most important political relationship of his office is the one with the occupant of the White House. That's why he agreed, this week, to indulge President Bush's insistence that Israel seek a negotiated agreement with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas before moving ahead with plans to unilaterally redraw its border. After all, Olmert had actually campaigned on the promise of acting unilaterally to finalize Israel's borders, and he has made no secret that he sees Abbas as a lame duck. The Palestinian leader is not trusted...
...What the Palestinian showdown reveals, however, is that the obstacles to a negotiated solution are not simply the fact that Hamas now runs the Palestinian government or that armed groups have not been dismantled. While Abbas sees the basis for negotiations as the 1967 borders, Olmert's version of the border - as described by the route of the security wall he is in the process of completing - folds in the major Israeli settlement blocs on the West Bank, bissecting the territory and cutting it off from East Jerusalem. The fact that the Israeli negotiating position is so far from even...
...Hamas's own diplomatic offensive may make it more difficult for the West to sustain its isolation, particularly if the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate in Gaza. But President Bush assured Olmert that the U.S. position to maintain the pressure on Hamas remains steady. Taken together with Bush's promises that the U.S. would defend Israel in the event of an Iranian attack, it was a clear sign that while Ariel Sharon, a frequent visitor to the Bush White House, has left Israel's political scene, his legacy has not. No matter what differences they may have, Israel...
...There was every indication from Olmert's first visit that he will inherit his predecessor's ties to the Administration. But it is a lot more difficult for the U.S. to endorse Olmert's plan than it was to back Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout. Sharon's exit from Gaza, whereby Israel withdrew to its 1967 border, was a move welcomed throughout the international community. But in the West Bank, Olmert's intention, revealed by the route of the security wall Israel is building, is to fold in huge settlement blocs on land occupied in 1967, bisecting the West Bank...
...Israel's arrest Tuesday of a senior Hamas military commander in Ramallah suggests it wants to keep the focus on Hamas as a terror organization, but that may not be easy as Olmert would like to believe. Apparently aware of the danger of being isolated, the Hamas government appears to be moving towards accepting a version of the Arab League position of offering recognition of Israel within its 1967 borders. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, in an interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz, effectively offered Israel peace in exchange for a withdrawal to 1967 borders. True, he didn't actually...