Word: sharon
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...retaliate harshly for the Hamas and Hizballah actions. The post-9/11 era has marked a new high in Israeli-U.S. relations, with Washington abandoning its past practice of criticizing Israel when it acts severely toward the Palestinians or other Arab parties. Starting with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israeli officials have taken to adopting Bush's war-on-terrorism rhetoric. Justice Minister Haim Ramon last week said Israel would treat Nasrallah as the U.S. treats Osama bin Laden...
...this is happening, of course, against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is a source of contention as much as ever. Israel broke off political talks with Yasser Arafat on a settlement in 2001 when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was elected, while President Bush has shunned the active Middle East diplomacy practiced by most of his predecessors. But despite Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip a year ago, Israeli and U.S. policies of shunning negotiations have not produced much new hope of lasting progress. In fact, Palestinian voters six months ago ousted the late Yasser Arafat...
...Those decisions will be even tougher to make because the second front in Israel's current conflict holds many painful memories. In 1982 the Israeli military, led by then Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, occupied a small portion of southern Lebanon, vowing to stay only a short time. They did not withdraw until 2000. Many Israelis view the Lebanon years the way Americans think of Vietnam - as a tragic quagmire no one wishes to revisit...
...still young and untested administration, Golan added, "this is a political nightmare." Olmert himself is operating in the still formidable shadow of his predecessor, Ariel Sharon, and Defense Minister Amir Peretz is working amid great skepticism that he, a man with no previous military leadership experience, is up to the task...
That, in part, explains the ardor of the Israelis' effort to find Shalit. Olmert, who took office after Ariel Sharon's stroke in January, had little choice but to go into Gaza, given the Israeli public's deep identification with the army, in which most Israeli citizens have served. Lacking any counterpart on the Palestinian side that it trusts, Israel has taken a "shake the trees" approach, putting as much pressure as possible on the government and civilian population in the hopes that someone would turn on Hamas. But it's difficult to see how some Israeli tactics, particularly...