Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is "a dead man walking," from a political standpoint, New American Foundation analyst Daniel Levy told Reuters News Agency. He joined other analysts who share the view that the Bush administration is shifting gears and trying to maintain stability in the Palestinian Authority (PA) rather than putting too much effort into an increasingly unlikely PA-Israeli agreement.
The increasing probability of new elections in Israel has further complicated American tactics. "This is a period of some ambiguity and awkwardness for the United States," a senior Bush administration official told the news agency. He added that the United States does not want to show that it supports one of the Israeli political parties in favor of another.