Free Republic

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has accused right-wing Americans of being responsible for the lack of peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Wealthy Americans ousted him from power and derailed negotiations, he told CNN. Olmert said he was committed to reaching peace, “But I had to fight against superior powers, including millions and millions of dollars that were transferred from this country [the United States] by figures which were from the extreme right wing that were aimed to topple me as prime minister of Israel.” Olmert left office amidst accusations of corruption involving several different affairs. His bureau chief...

US Politicians Duped By The Brotherhood In the United States, one individual maintained a pretense of "moderation" which would later embarrass the left and the right. According to the testimony of Dr. Michael Waller to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Abdurahman Alamoudi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. A man born in Eritrea in 1951, he arrived in the US in 1979 and became a naturalized US citizen on May 23, 1996. From 1985 onwards he became involved in many Muslim groups. In 1990 he founded the Washington DC-based American Muslim Council (AMC), which Waller states "has...

Israel's leaders have purposely obscured their war aims in Gaza. But there are only two possible endgames: (A) a Lebanon-like cessation of hostilities to be supervised by international observers, or (B) the disintegration of Hamas rule in Gaza. Under tremendous international pressure -- including from an increasingly wobbly U.S. State Department -- the government of Ehud Olmert has begun hinting that it is receptive to a French-Egyptian cease-fire plan... That would be a terrible mistake. It would fail on its own terms. It would have the same elements as the phony peace in Lebanon: ... a cessation of hostilities until...

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will hand in his resignation to President Shimon Peres at 7:30 p.m. Sunday to carry out an orderly transfer of power, Cabinet Secretary Ovad Yehezkel announced. Once Peres receives the letter, he will meet with the heads of the 13 Knesset factions to consult with them about whom he should appoint to form a new coalition before formally appointing new Kadima leader Tzipi Livni. She will then have 42 days to form a coalition - but her goal is to present a new government to the Knesset when it returns for its winter session on October...

Government and police spokesmen would have us believe that the carnage in Jerusalem on Wednesday was unavoidable. Husam Taysir Dwayat, the convicted rapist, burglar and drug dealer turned jihadist who mowed down innocent people with his bulldozer on Jaffa Road was not suspected of links to terrorist organizations. The sociopathic, violent criminal who had "returned" to Islam over the past month raised no red flags. There was nothing to be done. No one is to blame. If the protestations of the government and the police that nothing could have prevented Dwayat from using his bulldozer to murder three people sound...

On Sunday the Israeli cabinet voted 22-3 in favor of a “prisoner” swap with Hezbollah. Israel, on its side of the bargain, won’t be receiving any prisoners but instead the corpses of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, the two soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah in 2006, along with partial, inadequate information on Ron Arad, the airman shot down over Lebanon in 1986. Hezbollah, for its part, gets five live terrorists including child-killer Samir Kuntar, dozens of corpses of terrorists, information on four Iranian diplomats who were detained by Christian Phalange forces in Lebanon in 1982, and live Palestinian terrorists whose number...

On May 14, Israel will celebrate 60 years of independence. It's never been an easy independence. Israel is surrounded by regional instability and Israelis have needed to regularly fight their neighbors to maintain their independence -- if not their very existence. Despite those challenges, Israel has managed to retain a vibrant democracy for six decades. That dichotomous existence was clear on my latest trip to Israel last month, when I toured Sderot on the Gaza border and met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and other Israeli officials to discuss ongoing U.S.-Israeli relations...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney, starting a visit on Saturday to try to push forward Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said Washington would never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security. Palestinians accuse Israel of undermining the U.S.-sponsored peace talks by expanding Jewish settlements, refusing to remove West Bank roadblocks and mounting offensives against militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip who fire cross-border rockets into the Jewish state. "America's commitment to Israel's security is enduring and unshakable, as is Israel's right to protect itself always against terrorism, rocket attacks and other attacks from forces dedicated to Israel's destruction,"...

In March 2006, the Israeli people elected incompetents to lead us. It only took four months for Hizbullah to make us pay a price for our mistake. In the July and August 2006 war, Israelis came to understand that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, then defense minister Amir Peretz and then IDF chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz were together and separately the worst leaders that Israel had ever seen. During the war in Lebanon and since Israel withdrew from Gaza, the guiding assumptions of the unilateral withdrawal strategy have proven false. But Israel's leaders have...

"It is exclusively in the hands of Israeli leaders and the public to determine whether, when facing challenges in the future, we will come to them more prepared and ready, and whether we shall cope with them in a more serious and responsible way than the way the decision-makers acted - in the political and the military echelons - in the Second Lebanon War."From the Winograd Committee's Final Report, January 30, 2008In the weeks prior to Wednesday's publication of the Winograd Report into the Second Lebanon War, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert consulted with an array of expert advisers on how...

In March 2006, the Israeli people elected incompetents to lead us. It only took four months for Hizbullah to make us pay a price for our mistake. In the July and August 2006 war, Israelis came to understand that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, then defense minister Amir Peretz and then IDF chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz were together and separately the worst leaders that Israel had ever seen. Almost from the war's outset it was evident that Israel's leaders were in over their heads. They acted as though there was no difference between running...

At the end of the Second Lebanon War, Israel rumbled at the edge of a political volcano. Demobilized reservists marched to Jerusalem demanding that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resign in the wake of his incompetent handling of the war. Just as the reservists' protests were gathering momentum, in walked Avigdor Lieberman, the head of the rightist Israel Beiteinu party, and saved the government. Without so much as haggling over the price Olmert would pay for his surprising support, Lieberman joined the government in the ill-defined and powerless role of strategic affairs minister. Lieberman defended his move on patriotic grounds. The...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Monday that all options are open when it comes to keeping Iran from obtaining atomic weapons, his clearest sign yet that Israeli could use force against a nation considered among its most serious threats. Addressing a closed meeting of the parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Olmert was quoted as saying that Israel would not accept an Iran armed with nuclear weapons. Iran has always insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and a recent report by U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003....

JERUSALEM (AP) - President Bush, seeking to pull Israel and the Palestinians toward serious negotiations, said Wednesday that despite ongoing land squabbles and fears of violence he has high hopes that a Mideast peace pact can be achieved before he leaves office at the end of the year. "I come as an optimistic person and a realistic person - realistic in my understanding that it's vital for the world to fight terrorists, to confront those who would murder the innocent to achieve political objectives," Bush said as he began his first presidential visit to Israel. His first formal meeting was...

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said many interesting things in today's Jerusalem Post interview. Most striking, however, is not a particular remark but the contrast between his (unwittingly?) rather defeatist message and the strength that he ascribes to Israel's current position in the world. Olmert described Israel's position as struggling to implement a two-state solution because the alternative is to be demographically swamped by a one-state solution. He then pointed out that even the "world that is friendly to Israel - not the world comprised of fanatics and extremists - ... speaks of Israel in terms of the '67 borders. It...

Last Wednesday, New York's Jewish Week reported that the editor of Israel's self-described "newspaper of record" asked the US secretary of state to rape his country and told her that his erotic fantasy is to watch America rape Israel. On September 10, at a dinner at the home of US Ambassador Richard Jones, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with a group of Israeli "elites." Among the elitists was Haaretz editor David Landau. According to the Jewish Week, Landau "referred to Israel as a "failed state" politically, one in need of a US-imposed settlement. He was said to have implored...

Washington - Looking to the post-Bush era in American politics, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is attempting to enlist leading presidential candidates to support his renewed push for a settlement with the Palestinians. When Olmert was in the United States for the Annapolis, Md., peace summit, he took the opportunity to call each of the leading presidential candidates to brief them on the plans for engaging in final-status talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. “I found that all the candidates had a lot of good will toward Israel,” Olmert said later in a press briefing. “They were all very friendly...

What a difference a week makes. The depth of the crisis facing the US and Israel may be difficult to fathom, but the Prime Minister of Israel appears hard-put to confront it or even acknowledge it. Back in Annapolis, Ehud Olmert enjoyed his fifteen minutes of fame and glory, and the fleeting embrace of George W. Bush. But after the Joint Understanding was filed away, and the reporters filed their stories, the Israelis began to realize the extent of the bait-and-switch that had been pulled on them, and what a sea-change in relations with the United States they were facing....

Israel's popular foreign minister called Wednesday on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign _ positioning herself to replace him and dealing the toughest blow yet to his efforts to stay in power after a scathing report on his performance in the war in Lebanon. Olmert said he does not plan to resign, despite the growing number of allies deserting him. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni became the highest-ranking official to call for Olmert's ouster, telling him in a meeting that he had lost the public's support and setting herself up to become Israel's second female prime minister, after the legendary Golda...

Predicting that war with Syria could erupt if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not begin peace negotiations with Damascus, the latest IDF assessment also states that such a conflict would be "at least 10 times worse" than last summer's conflict with Hizbullah. Military Intelligence is also identifying and pinpointing targets for the IDF in the event that a strike is launched against Iran's nuclear facilities. MI recently established a new division to translate intelligence into concrete targets and information that can be used by units in the field. The new division is headed by Brig.-Gen. Nitzan Alon, a former commander...

Free Gilad Shalit, Now!! Swap PM Olmert for him by Jerry Gordon and Lori Lowenthal Marcus Everyone celebrated this week when kidnapped BBC Gaza correspondent, Alan Johnston, was sprung by Hamas forces in Gaza . The story told by the approving world media was that Hamas tightened the noose around the captors, laying siege to the hideout until Johnston was relinquished. An act of persistence and bravado by Hamas in a selfless gesture to rescue an ally. In the wake of these dizzying turn of events, Johnston received a human rights award from none other than Amnesty International. We wistfully...

Israel Winograd Report: Olmert, Peretz Negligent, Failed War ObjectivesBy Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----April 30...... Leaked portions of the Winograd report on the Lebanon War state that Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz were "negligent" and failed in carrying out their roles as Prime Minister and Defense Minister during the Lebanon War. The Winograd report further states that both Olmert and Peretz failed to meet the objectives of the war - capturing the Katusha launchers in South Lebanon and rescuing Israel's missing soldiers. The Winograd report goes on to scold Olmert for allowing an...

Last Friday, Haaretz's military commentator Ze'ev Schiff accused the Barak and Sharon governments of responsibility for last summer's war. As Schiff put it, since the IDF withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000, "a threatening system [comprised of Hizbullah, Syria and Iran] arose [on Israel's northern border], which required a preemptive strike. The aversion to conducting such a strike eventually caused the war." Schiff's analysis is correct. But since it stops short of drawing lessons for the present dangers, it is largely useless. Today, due to the Olmert-Livni-Peretz government's failure in the last war, we stand at the brink of...

Israel Cabinet: Olmert To Serve As Acting Finance Minister By Israel News Agency Staff Jerusalem ----April 22...... The following was communicated by the Israel Cabinet Secretariat and the Israel Government Press Office to the Israel News Agency. At the weekly Cabinet meeting today Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that he had received Israel Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson’s statement that the latter was taking a temporary leave of absence as a result of the Israel police investigations in his regard and as per Article 24b of Israel Basic Law. Prime Minister Olmert noted that in keeping with Article 24b of...

Israel Herzliya Conference - No Standing Ovation For Ehud Olmert By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ---- January 24, 2007..... Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed both the Israel and international public at the prestigious Herzliya Conference this evening. The Herzliya Conference is a who's who of the Israel and Jewish security, academic, commercial and diplomatic worlds. It is the FTV of Israel politics and foreign affairs. It the premiere networking event and usually where one will witness historic remarks coming from the Prime Minister. "This is a sad day," Olmert said in reference to Israel President Katsav facing...

For the past week, former US Secretary Of State James Baker has defended his Iraq Study Group's recommendation that the US negotiate with Iran and Syria from myriad criticisms. While acknowledging that Iran and Syria may not respond positively to US attempts to appease them, Baker said that even rejection will be helpful. If they refuse an American hand extended in partnership then they will stand exposed as enemies, he promises grandly. But exposed to whom? Who is supposed to care if Iran and Syria are unmasked? They already are unmasked. Everyone knows that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Everyone...

In Israel, The Truth Comes From The Merchants By Olivier Rafowicz Israel News Agency Jerusalem ---- November 29...... When one walks through the old, narrow and winding streets of a Jerusalem market and observes the glances of thousands of Israelis, one cannot help but reflect on the current political landscape. Mahane Yehuda, in Hebrew, "the Camp of Yehuda", is the name of the oldest popular market in Jerusalem, Israel. Any tourist, businessmen or simple passerby in the ancient market is welcomed into the culture, the history of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. The ultra-orthodox, moving at a...

Three days ahead of his trip to Washington D.C., Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged on Thursday night to make substantive offers to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. "I am ready day and night, I am ready anytime, any place, without preconditions to sit down and talk. He [Abbas] will be surprised how far we are prepared to go," Olmert said in a public interview with Sky's Adam Boulton at the Conference for Export and International Cooperation in Tel Aviv. "I can offer him a lot," he added, but did not elaborate. The two leaders have not met officially since Olmert...

Olmert: Israel Economy, Export Strong, War On Terrorism Continues By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Tel Aviv ---November 10.....Over 1,000 business people from North America, Europe and Asia attended the Israel Prime Minister's Conference for Export and International Cooperation. The two day business conference in Tel Aviv, which focused on Israel export, industry and trade, was deemed an overwhelming success by the sheer number of people who attended the conference. "What impressed me most about this Israel export and trade conference was the seamless crossover between government and business communities ? where government policy meets business strategy," said Mark Ross...

Today two groups of protesters are gathered outside the Prime Minister's Office. The Movement for Quality Government is demanding the establishment of an official commission of inquiry, headed by a Supreme Court justice to investigate the handling of the war in Lebanon. Down the road, IDF reservists are demanding that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz resign. The critical question arising from the separate protests is whether or not the country's current political and military leadership are capable of drawing the proper lessons from the war. If Israel's...

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's popularity has plunged sharply after Israel's war with Hezbollah and he would likely be crushed by the right-wing opposition if elections were held now, according to a poll published Friday. The next vote is not scheduled until 2010. However, Olmert's government could be forced out earlier amid growing public anger over his performance during the war, which ended inconclusively after 120 Israeli soldiers and 39 civilians were killed. At least 854 people were killed in Lebanon. Olmert has faced increasing pressure in recent days. including calls by army reservists and bereaved parents that he...

It was a war Israel was more afraid of winning than of losing. It was a war whose battlefield strategy was based on posturing – on acting as if Israel were conducting an actual all-out war. It was a war in which Israel attempted to defeat the enemy by not defeating him. It was a war of the make-pretend. Let us be clear. Every war has its share of mishaps, glitches, and human errors, and this one was no exception. But this war was fought after many years of massive budget cuts for the military. Convinced that the era of...

Israeli reservists, fresh from fighting in southern Lebanon, demanded yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resign over what they describe as the debacle of the monthlong war with Hezbollah. The calls of the reservists will make it more difficult for Mr. Olmert's Cabinet to avoid appointing a formal "state commission of inquiry," panels that helped bring down two prominent Israeli leaders in the past 33 years. Reservists told of insufficient provisions, of having no water in the summer heat and being forced to drink from canteens of dead Hezbollah guerrillas, shortages of combat equipment and indecisive orders. One group...

I am afraid that the incompetence of the left-wing Olmert government in Israel is a chilling foretelling of what might happen if a liberal Democrat is elected president in this country in 2008. Under Olmert’s misguided tutelage and penchant for thinking one can reason with terrorists, Israel’s army was allowed to decline in training and equipment, and a peacenik was appointed Defense Chief of Israel with disastrous results.

Syria is the "single most aggressive member of the axis of evil," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday, ruling out a resumption of negotiations with Damascus at this time. "I am the last person who will say I want to negotiate with Syria," Olmert said in unusually harsh comments. In a visit to northern Israel, Olmert noted that rockets that hit the town in 34 days of Israel-Hizbullah fighting came from Syria. According to the prime minister, "When Syria stops supporting terrorism, when it stops giving missiles to terror organizations, then we will be happy to negotiate with them." His...

My article on the meaning of the Middle East ceasefire and the failure of the Israelis to complete their mission speculated that it could lead eventually to a nuclear weapon being used by the Israelis on Iran. It seems to me that one might conclude from the following opposing article (its author says that the real losers were Syria and Iran (not Israel) that the events of this summer have actually laid the groundwork for the USA to bomb Iran with nuclear weapons.

Since the cease-fire was implemented in Lebanon, we have heard scattered reports indicating that a prisoner swap with the Palestinians may be in the works. In exchange for hundreds if not thousands of Palestinian terrorists now held in Israeli prisons, IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who has been held hostage by Palestinian terrorists for nearly two months, may be released from captivity. These reports lend weight to the view that things are back to normal. Terrorists kidnap Israelis and hold them hostage and Israel releases terrorists in order to free them. It is a comforting thought for people like Prime Minister...

The Prime Minister's Office said Saturday afternoon that the commando operation in Wadi village near Baalbek was necessary and not against the ceasefire: "We needed to carry out this operation, and it's good that we did so." Sources in the office also said, "The operation was necessary because Hizbullah is violating the ceasefire by smuggling Syrian and Iranian arms, which is against the agreement." In the operation, an IDF officer was killed and another two officers were injured, one critically, the other lightly. The Prime Minister's Office responded to claims made by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora that Israel's actions...

We've all known brave soldiers who fought courageously in multiple conflicts only to succumb to lingering and debilitating illnesses years later. Likewise, history tells us of nations that never lost a battle in combat only to die because they lost their sense of purpose, their will to survive. I think that's what is happening in Israel today. I think the Jewish state is terminally ill. Israel may have won three major wars in its 60-year history, but it will be lucky to survive another decade of morally bankrupt leadership. It's not just former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who is comatose....

Both sides in this, just the latest of several Middle East wars – always started by Muslims dedicated to the extermination of Israel, are claiming victory, and Condy Rice is trying to put the best face she can on the cease-fire agreement. There is no question in my mind, though, that Israel’s incompetence placed the United States in an untenable position

(IsraelNN.com) A group of reserve soldiers, who were recently discharged and are setting up a forum, have called upon Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni to resign. Tonight the soldiers will be holding a demonstration at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv at 7p.m. The demonstration is expected to be the first of several, under the banner, “You failed – resign!” In a petition publicized by the forum, the public is asked to sign the following: “We are very worried about the fate of the country. From all ends of the political spectrum, we...

It would be funny if it were not so sad Turning a golden calf into a sacred cow As the combat has trailed off in Lebanon, it can now be said that whatever Israel’s losses, it has discovered a great comedic genius: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert—a man who sent his army to war, but only after tying its shoelaces together. In fact, Olmert is more than a performing comedic artist but also a director of a war cabinet that encompasses a veritable Shakespearean company performing a seemingly endless comedy of errors. Olmert’s defense minister, Amir Peretz, offered to make peace...

Tisha b’Av is the Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the ancient Jewish temples, which both fell on the same day of the calendar. Last year, Tsh’a b’Av fell on August 14, the day Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza. This year August 14 marked the day when Israel’s cabinet accepted the UN’s cease fire in the current war. Because Judaism follows a lunar calendar, Tisha b’Av this year fell on August 3. I, nonetheless, believe that this year’s Tisha b’Av marks not only the end of the sacred temples but, with the withdrawal from Gaza and now the...

Finally, after what seems to be the end of this war or at least the end of the latest round, the country's leaders seemed to acknowledge that some kind of accounting is called for. Defense Minister announced on Monday morning that he intended to "appoint a team that will conduct an intensive, comprehensive investigation of all the events leading up to the war and during the war." But he failed to say who will lead the team or even what its precise mandate would be. In his Knesset speech, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also admitted that "there were mistakes made,"...

Gabrielle Goldwater's open letter to Prime Minister Olmert ........................... To Prime Minister Ehud Olmert eolmert@moital.gov.ilGeneva Switzerland August 14th 2006 Dear Mr. Olmert; It is with the utmost sadness as a Jew and Holocaust Survivor, that today I have to see that You surrendered our Jewish Homeland Security to an organization which in her deepest core, is anti-Semitic, and the most helpful tool serving Islamo Fascism - I talk about the UN and it's leader Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan. Looking back in history my father would turn in his grave knowing that Jews have NOT stood tall - but caved in...

Even as he stood before the Knesset Monday to claim personal responsibility for the month-long military operation in the north, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised to continue to "hunt Hizbullah down anytime, anywhere." "We will continue to pursue [Hizbullah] everywhere and at all times," Olmert told the Knesset's special session. "We have no intention of asking anyone's permission." It was the prime minister's first speech since the cease-fire went into effect Monday morning. Although Olmert stopped short of calling the military operation in the north a victory, he said that the war had changed the "strategic balance against Hizbullah," adding...

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Knesset on Monday that UN Security Council Resolution 1701 "will change fundamentally our strategic situation on the northern border." The war in Lebanon has demonstrated that "we will respond with force to every terror act, from the north or the south, from land or sea ... and that the State of Israel won't suffer any harm to come to its sovereignty or citizens," Olmert declared. According to the prime minister, the resolution's main achievement was that "the entire international community agrees that the terror state in Lebanon must be annihilated," he said. "The Security...

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert endorsed an emerging Mideast cease-fire deal late Friday, after a day of dramatic day brinksmanship including a threat to expand the ground war in Lebanon. The agreement calls for the deployment of 30,000 Lebanese and U.N. troops along the Israel-Lebanon border. It falls short of some of Israel's demands, including a strong mandate for the U.N. forces to take on Hezbollah guerrillas. However, the draft is the best chance yet for peace after more than four weeks of war that has killed more than 800 people, destroyed Lebanon's infrastructure and inflamed tensions across...

As the Israeli people waited Thursday for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to implement his cabinet's decision to widen the ground offensive in Lebanon, Britain found itself under siege. British security officials announced that the entire country was on a red alert for a terror attack. The night before, British security forces foiled a terrorist conspiracy to explode some 20 US-bound passenger jets. As London's deputy police commissioner Paul Stephenson told reporters, "This was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale." By Thursday morning security forces had arrested some 21 suspects. All are British citizens. All are Muslims. It...

Most wartime leaders look for “an exit strategy,” but in the case of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, many Israelis are wondering if there is an “entry strategy.” Indeed, in a striking statement that surprised reporters this morning (Wednesday) Prime Minister Olmert seemed to be blaming the Israeli army for not moving earlier and more aggressively to root out terrorists shooting rockets into Israel. “Until yesterday morning no operative plans were presented to to expand our military activities in Lebanon beyond where our army now stand,” declared Mr Olmert in his first live news briefing with reporters since the war...