Israeli Foreign Minister Calls on Olmert to Resign

Israeli Foreign Minister Calls on Olmert to Resign

By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: May 3, 2007

JERUSALEM, May 3 — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s deputy called on him to resign on Wednesday after a harshly critical government report about his management of Israel’s war against Hezbollah last summer.

The deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, met with Mr. Olmert in his office, and “told him that resignation would be the right thing for him to do,” she said at a news conference in her office. She said that she would be a candidate within the Kadima Party to replace him as prime minister.

“Now is the time to restore the public’s trust in government,” Ms. Livni said.

But she insisted that she would not organize an effort to oust him and that she did not intend to resign herself, but would do the best she could to fix the flaws in governance that the report laid bare.

On Wednesday night, however, it appeared that Mr. Olmert would hang on, with party leaders giving him some months until the final report is released this summer, according to Channel 2 news.

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/world/middleeast/03mideast.html?ref=world

Olmert's dirty little war in Lebanon was a major FUBAR and an avoidable overreaction to something that could have been achieved with negotiations and a prisoner exchange.

Peretz should resign as well, a big disappointment he turned out to be!

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Speaking at the start of a special Knesset debate on the report into the 34-day war, Netanyahu said that Israel's leadership had failed the people during the war.

"Those who failed at war cannot be those who correct the failures," he said.

The opposition leader said that the war had proved that "the unilateral approach does not work."

Additional comments from other MKs.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/855399.html

It feels like his star should be on the rise.

Maybe not straight away.

Maybe the next but one PM.

Almost all of them look nuts to me anyway, with a couple exceptions.

My guess would be that what comes next will depend on a combination of what the Israeli people are willing to put up with and who wins the real political dogfight going on on the inside, and I doubt that we will be informed about much of that.

Ms Livni seems like the most interesting actor to me, although I am not at present optimistic about her prospects.

Olmert and Kadima leaders fear the public outcry over the Winograd report could force Labor to quit the government even before its primaries at the end of the month. Moves at Labor to abandon Olmert are expanding.

Olmert's aides said Thursday that the coalition's test will be its ability to survive until June, when Labor's second round of primaries is due.

Labor secretary general Eitan Cabel, who resigned from the cabinet this week, said he would convene the party's central committee on May 13 to vote on quitting the government.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/855585.html

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert opted on Sunday against firing his deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, saying they would continue to work together despite her call for his resignation.

Livni issued a public call last week for Olmert to step down following the release of an official report sharply criticizing his handling of last year's war in Lebanon.

A statement issued by Olmert's office after the two met on Sunday said they "agreed to continue to work together as part of the government headed by Ehud Olmert."

Olmert's office said the brief meeting, at the end of a regular cabinet session, dealt with diplomatic issues rather than any personal differences.

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-05-06T113217Z_01_L06678684_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-ISRAEL-OLMERT-COL.XML&archived=False