CONDOLEEZZA RICE MEETS WITH ISRAELI DM AMIR PERETZ

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- The striking success of even relatively small forces of Russian Main Battle Tanks in the five-day conflict with Georgia proves once again how crucial tanks remain to the conduct of modern war.

WASHINGTON, July 31 (UPI) -- Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is the front-runner to succeed her boss, Ehud Olmert, as prime minister of Israel, but she could lose out to tough old Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, and, even if she wins, she isn't likely to keep the job long.

WASHINGTON, May 28 (UPI) -- Ehud Olmert's days as prime minister of Israel are numbered, maybe in the single digits: His powerful and respected defense minister, Ehud Barak, has called on him to resign.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signaled his strong support for his country's ballistic missile defense development program Tuesday when he took a trip to Rafael Advanced Industries and received an update there on the nation's two premier BMD systems.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- 2007 was a year when major industrial nations divided into tortoises and hares in their policies towards ballistic missile defense.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Boeing says it successfully completed a series of Space Based Space Surveillance system tests.

GAZA, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Israel's defense minister Sunday said he has authorized incursions further into Gaza in retaliation for Hamas attacks on southern Israel.

JERUSALEM, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is already acheiving great things by cleaning up the administrative mess his clownish predecessor Amir Peretz left in the country's crucial ballistic missile defense program. but he is also betting that ambitious investment in as yet undeveloped BMD technolgies will bring unanticipated levels of strategic security to his country and cement his political comeback.

HAIFA, Israel, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Missile-defense systems will be on the agenda during Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak's upcoming visit to the United States, the first since his May appointment to the job.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is sincere in his hard-driving determination to boost Israel's ballistic missile defenses as quickly as possible. But he also sees that achievement as a stepping stone to two other huge goals -- becoming prime minister and reviving the long-moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process.