Word: olmert
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...Olmert needs all the luck he can get. His biggest challenge will be to sustain support for a campaign promise that involves evacuating thousands of Israeli settlers from the West Bank, completing a wall to separate Israel from the Palestinians and establishing new borders--all within four years. Olmert's team calls the idea "convergence": it would amount to the first large-scale uprooting of Israeli citizens from the West Bank since the territory was captured in 1967. Olmert told TIME that he expects the post-convergence map to be "very close to what may be the final borderlines" between...
...hour interview last week, Olmert betrayed little uncertainty about the job ahead. "I've been working 33 years to reach this minute," he says. "I am where I'm supposed to be." Olmert is rangy and barrel-chested, with a long, sallow countenance that makes him look as if he is in a constant state of mourning. In person, he exudes a relaxed, backslapping warmth, but even those close to him say he can get prickly. "He always has to have the last word," says Etti Livni, a former Knesset member and close friend. Says Aliza: "He's a hunter...
Unlike Sharon, who would conduct freewheeling gabfests with his aides without ever settling on a course of action, Olmert insists on reaching decisions at the end of each meeting. His stamina is honed by daily six-mile runs; someone who has advised both men says that "by 5 a.m. Olmert knows everything, because he has read all the papers on the Internet. I don't think Sharon knew how to turn on a computer." But Olmert shares Sharon's preoccupation with the survival of the Jewish state and an abiding skepticism in the Palestinians' willingness to accept that. "He mistrusts...
...Olmert is a scion of the Israeli right, which long subscribed to the vision of creating "Eretz Ysrael," extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the banks of the Jordan River. Olmert's father served in the Knesset in the 1950s as a member of the Herut Party, a forerunner of the right-wing Likud. Ehud studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was elected to the Knesset in 1973 as the youngest Likud member. Olmert launched crusades against corruption in professional soccer and, later, against organized crime. Israelis credit Olmert's generation with bringing transparency to the clubby...
...rather than continuing to fight the system, Olmert joined it. In 1977 he opened a private law firm, using his influence to attract wealthy clients. The law practice made him rich--"I don't hate the good life," Olmert says--but his ties to the business community landed him in the middle of numerous scandals, including a case stemming from the 1988 election campaign in which he was accused of conspiring with other Likud officials to skirt campaign-finance restrictions. Though he was acquitted in 1997, Olmert gained a reputation for cynicism. As Jerusalem mayor, he initiated improvements such...