Word: olmert
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...Iraq Study Group, which together with much of the "realist" establishment in U.S. foreign policy is urging the Administration to recognize that a dialogue with Iran (and Syria) is an essential component of any successful strategy to stabilize Iraq. Bush's other visitor was Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose main purpose at the White House appeared to be pressing the President to follow his own instincts and those of the hawks in his Administration by maintaining a tough line against Iran because of its nuclear program...
...President Bush will soon discover what Baker and Olmert probably already know: That it won't be possible to do both...
...Olmert wooed Lieberman in part to preempt the Yisrael Beiteinu leader from coupling with his one-time mentor and leader of the Likud opposition, former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. While the move maintains the primacy of Olmert's Kadima party, some questioned how a Prime Minister already under fire for his management of the Hizballah war could hand Lieberman, who has no military or intelligence background, a position that carries at least some responsibility for watching Iran, which many Israeli leaders identify as their country's greatest threat...
...Hardly surprisingly, Lieberman's arrival has forced Olmert's senior coalition partner, the equally embattled Defense Minister and Labor Party leader Amir Peretz, to reexamine its own position. A split has already developed between members who want to withdraw their 19 Knesset seats from Olmert's government - Arab members are particularly appalled by their new coalition mates - and those who think it best to stay. Labor will decide its course on Sunday, but the Lieberman dilemma has simply highlighted the sense that the party no longer knows where it stands. Israel's campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza, and the increasingly...
...Olmert's challenge, now that he has Lieberman at his side, is to prove that his government has a purpose beyond remaining in power. But the breadth of the coalition he has created - if it holds together - may well lengthen the odds against his being able to move forward in any direction...