Israeli prime minister accepts U.N. cease-fire deal

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 the Middle East.

Neither the Lebanese government nor Hezbollah has said publicly whether they would sign on to the deal, but it was widely assumed that they did not object to it. Plans to take the resolution to a vote were announced in New York shortly after U.S. Mideast envoy, Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, met for a second time Friday with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

Israeli officials said Israel would not halt fighting until Israel's Cabinet has approved the cease-fire deal in its weekly meeting Sunday. It was not immediately clear whether the military would expand its ground offensive in the time remaining, or would only hold existing positions.

Only six hours passed from an initial decision by Olmert to broaden the ground offensive to his acceptance of the cease-fire deal. The zigzag reflected Israel's dilemma after a month of inconclusive fighting.

Israel has been unable to defeat Hezbollah and was concerned about growing Israeli casualties, as well as international condemnation, if the war continued. However, Olmert also feared that accepting a deal that does not rein in the guerrillas could lead to another war down the road and hurt him politically.

Olmert's initial order to send troops deeper into Hezbollah territory came even as U.N. Security Council negotiations reached the final stretch in New York.

Several hours later, France and the United States reached agreement on a final draft, to be put to a vote later Friday. The draft would authorize the deployment of 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers in south Lebanon, along with 15,000 Lebanese troops, into the region "as Israel withdraws."

The Security Council, repeatedly accused of taking too long to come up with a response to fighting, would leave out several key demands from both Israel and Lebanon in efforts to come up with a workable arrangement.

"You never get a deal like this with everybody getting everything that they want," Britain's Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said. "The question is, has everybody got enough for this to stick and for it to be enforceable? Nobody wants to go back to where we were before this last episode started."

Despite Lebanese objections, Israel will be allowed to continue defensive operations, and a dispute over the Chebaa Farms area along the Syria-Lebanon-Israel border will be left for later. Israel won't get its wish for an entirely new multinational force separate from the U.N. peacekeepers that have been stationed in south Lebanon since 1978.

There is also no call for the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel or a demand for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops. Although the draft resolution emphasizes the need for the "unconditional release" of the two Israeli soldiers whose July 12 capture by Hezbollah sparked the conflict, that call is not included in the list of steps required for a lasting cease-fire.

The ongoing fighting has killed more than 800 people — including at least 732 Lebanese and 122 Israelis.

After nightfall, there were some signs of troop movement on the Israel-Lebanon border. Battle-ready soldiers carrying heavy backpacks marched near the border as tanks assembled nearby. In south Lebanon, there were no reports of increased troop activity. Israeli officials gave conflicting assessments on whether a wider campaign was under way.

More than 10,000 Israeli troops are already fighting Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon. In the new phase, Israeli forces would push toward Lebanon's Litani River, some 18 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border, attempting to capture more than twice as much territory as they hold now.

Olmert has faced growing criticism at home for the army's inability to halt the rocket barrages; Hezbollah has fired more than 3,500 rockets in the monthlong war. Polls also indicated that his initially approval rating, high at the start of the war, was slipping.

Commentators have suggested Olmert's political career was at stake, and that he might even be forced to step down. Many Israelis believe defeating Hezbollah is essential for their country's long-term security.

In Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes pounded south Beirut and border crossings to Syria, killing at least 15 people as ground fighting picked up intensity in the south of the country.

In the Bekaa Valley, an Israeli drone fired missiles into a convoy of refugees fleeing attacks in the southern town of Marjayoun, killing at least six people and wounding 16 others, an Associated Press photographer said.

The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of the incident. The army noted that it had imposed a travel ban on south Lebanon, and had received no request to coordinate a convoy in that area.

Throughout the day, civilians had been fleeing fighting in the Christian town of Marjayoun in long convoys after Israeli forces entered earlier this week.

Lutfallah Daher, the photographer, was with the convoy when it was hit near the town of Chtaura, about 30 miles north of the Litani River. Israel had warned it would attack any vehicle on roads south of the Litani, assuming it was carrying Hezbollah weapons or fighters.

Daher said the convoy consisted of more than 600 civilian vehicles and others carrying a detachment of 350 Lebanese soldiers and police when it left the area around Marjayoun. He said very few of the vehicles had left the convoy when it was hit.

Which is better at facing the challenges of Israel today?

Ehud Olmert vs. Benjamin Netanyahu

Ehud Olmert

Ehud Olmert was born in Binyamina in 1945.

He served in the IDF as combat infantry unit officer and was a military correspondent for the IDF journal Bamachane. A lawyer by profession, he holds B.A. and LL.B. degrees in Psychology, Philosophy and Law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Ehud Olmert was a Knesset Member from 1973, serving on the House, Constitution, Law & Justice Committee, State Control, Foreign Affairs && Defense, Finance, Education & Culture, and Internal Affairs & Environment Committees.

From 1988-1990 he served as Minister Without Portfolio responsible for minority affairs, and from 1990 until 1992 as Minister of Health.

In November 1993, Olmert was elected Mayor of Jerusalem, subsequently resigning from the Knesset in 1998. After his re-election to the Knesset in 2003, he resigned from his position in February 2003.

In February 2003, Ehud Olmert was appointed Minister of Industry and Trade, and Deputy Prime Minister. Olmert became an influential member of the Cabinet and was one of the first to advocate a withdrawal from Gaza, an idea that was ultimately was endorsed by Prime Minister Sharon and became the disengagement plan.

Following Ariel Sharon's decision to leave the Likud Party in November 2005, Olmert joined with Sharon and several other former Likud ministers to form the new centrist party, Kadima.

On January 4, 2006, Sharon suffered a massive stroke that left him unable to perform his dutires as prime minister. On January 5, Olmert was given acting prime ministerial duties to keep the government effectively running in Sharon's absence. Also on January 5, Olmert held his first cabinet meeting to signal the transfer of power. Olmert remained acting Prime Minister until the Israeli elections, which took place on March 28, 2006.

Following elections to the 17th Knesset as head of the Kadima party, Ehud Olmert became Prime Minister of the 31st Government of Israel. He also holds the Social Welfare portfolio.

He is married, with four children.

Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin Netanyahu - soldier, diplomat and the ninth Prime Minister of the State of Israel - was born in Tel Aviv in 1949 and grew up in Jerusalem. He spent his adolescent years in the United States, where his father - a noted historian - taught Jewish history.

Returning to Israel in 1967 to fulfill his military obligations, Netanyahu volunteered for an elite commando unit of the IDF and participated in a number of daring operations, including the release of hostages from a hijacked Sabena Airlines aircraft at Ben-Gurion Airport, an operation in which he was wounded. He was discharged from the IDF after six years with the rank of captain. Netanyahu then studied at MIT in Boston and received a B.Sc. in architecture and an M.Sc. in Management Studies. He also studied political science at MIT and Harvard University. In 1976 he was employed by the Boston Consulting Group, an international business consulting firm, and later joined the management of Rim Industries in Jerusalem.

Much affected by the death of his eldest brother Yoni - who had fallen while commanding the 1976 Entebbe rescue operation to free the passengers of an Air France airliner held hostage in Uganda - Benjamin Netanyahu initiated and organized two international conferences on ways to combat international terrorism, in 1979 in Jerusalem and in 1984 in Washington. These forums attracted key political figures and opinion-makers in the international community.

In 1982 Netanyahu joined Israel's diplomatic mission in the United States - serving for two years as Deputy Chief of Mission under then-ambassador Moshe Arens. He was also a member of the first delegation to the talks on strategic cooperation between Israel and the United States. In 1984, Netanyahu was appointed Israel's ambassador to the United Nations and held this position for four years. An articulate speaker, forceful debater, and media-oriented diplomat, he played a key role in efforts to enhance Israel's image and improve understanding of the country's security needs among the "movers and shakers" in American public life.

Soon after returning to Israel in 1988, Benjamin Netanyahu entered the political arena and was elected a Member of Knesset by the Likud party - a political movement with which his family had been identified ideologically for two generations - and was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He served in this position for four years, marked by the intifada; the 1991 Gulf War; and the Madrid Peace Conference, which initiated direct talks between Israel and her neighbors. Netanyahu's talents, particularly in dealing with the media, again contributed greatly to Israel's standing abroad.

In 1993, Netanyahu was elected Chairman of the Likud Party and its candidate for Prime Minister. He led the political opposition in the period prior to and following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin - a time characterized by volatile public debate on basic issues, sparked by controversy over ramifications of the Oslo agreements and escalating Palestinian terrorism.

In 1996, in the first direct elections of an Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu defeated the incumbent Labor candidate Shimon Peres, and became the ninth Prime Minister of the State of Israel, serving until 1999.

In his first year of office, Netanyahu concentrated on two burning issues - healing the economy and taking a more resolute stand in the face of Palestinian failures to comply with the terms of agreements signed between them and Israel. Measures were introduced to restrain inflationary trends, along with concrete steps to reduce the chronic budget deficit. Based on a new policy designed to restructure the economy, first steps were taken - not without opposition - towards privatization of government-controlled companies and utilities.

Netanyahu's policy vis-a-vis the peace process was different from that of his predecessors. He honored the terms of the Hebron agreement - for the most part hammered out by the previous administration - but has adopted a far less conciliatory attitude towards the Palestinians, refusing to overlook their failure to live up to their commitments to abolish the Palestinian Covenant and combat terrorism. In keeping with a long-standing belief that one must not acquiesce to terrorism - even indirectly - Benjamin Netanyahu redefined Israel's peace equation upon becoming Prime Minister: He rejected the terminology categorizing Israelis murdered by Palestinian terrorists as "victims of peace" and steadfastly refused to ignore the Palestinian Authority's culpability. Demanding reciprocity, Netanyahu stipulated that Palestinian gains, such as redeployment of Israeli forces and expansion of autonomy, must be linked to genuine Palestinian efforts towards peace.

Benjamin Netanyahu served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from November 2002 until February 2003, when he was appointed Minister of Finance.

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