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Livni to Join Other Kadima MKs
in Calling for Olmert to Quit

by Hillel Fendel and Ezra HaLevi

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who said on Tuesday, "I am strong and will get through this," faces a major blow this afternoon when he meets with his party colleague Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni - who is expected to tell him to resign.

Reports say that Livni will threaten that if Olmert insists on remaining in power, she herself will resign and will work to depose him. She will hold a press conference following the 4 PM meeting with Olmert. The Livni news follows a similar call and threat by coalition whip MK Avigdor Yitzchaki, who said that if Olmert does not resign by today (Wednesday), he himself will quit his position.

Yitzchaki was a close aide to Ariel Sharon when the latter founded the Kadima party in late 2005, and feels no particular loyalty to Olmert. He claims that a majority of Kadima members share his sentiment. The attacks on Olmert follow the damning Winograd Committee report assigning him chief responsibility for the early failures in the Second Lebanon War.

"A leader can govern a public only when he has legitimacy with that public, and their trust," MK Yitzchaki told Voice of Israel Radio this morning. He joins MKs Marina Solodkin and Michael Nudelman in demanding the PM quit - though Olmert's bureau announced that Nudelman had retracted this call and now supports Olmert. Yitzchaki added that in order for Kadima to “return to being a legitimate ruling party,” the prime minister must resign. “A large majority of Kadima believes that the prime minister should resign," Yitzchaki said. "I don't know anyone who wouldn't be happy if he quit, including the people closest to him.

The question is how to convince him to leave." Another leading Kadima member, Transportation Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, has called for a national unity government - including the Likud - in order to deal with the current crisis. Mofaz says Olmert should head the government.

A Kadima faction meeting Yitzchaki planned for early Thursday has now been pushed up to Wednesday night. Prime Minister Olmert’s staff gave anonymous quotes to nearly all of Israel’s media outlets Tuesday night, critical of efforts by Foreign Minister Livni to have Olmert replaced within the party – presumably by her.

The aides said Olmert would take the offensive, issuing a public warning that Livni should either stop undermining the prime minister or resign herself. Livni’s staff denied that she is involved in Yitzchaki’s efforts to bring about Olmert’s resignation. Labor Central Committee to Convene on Leaving Minister Without Portfolio Eitan Cabel of Labor, who resigned Tuesday and called upon Olmert to follow suit, says he will convene the Labor Party’s central committee in order to bring about a decision to leave the government. Cabel is Labor's Secretary-General.

The session is to take place next week, ahead of the May 28th primaries. Of the two leading contenders for the party's leadership, Former GSS Head MK Ami Ayalon has already said that he would not remain in an Olmert-led coalition, and Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has not committed himself. Cabel supports Barak. Likud Wants Elections Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu is calling not for Olmert's resignation, but rather for the entire government to resign, a move which necessitates new Knesset elections.

He knows that as leader of a party with only 12 MKs, he would not be able to lead the government for long. On the other hand, polls forecast that in new elections, the Likud would approximately triple its strength. Olmert to Conduct Business as Usual Prime Minister Olmert plans on bringing a proposal before his cabinet Wednesday to adopt the main recommendations of the Winograd report, which does not explicitly call for his resignation, and work toward implementing them.

Olmert's plan involves appointing retired IDF Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shachak to come up within 30 days with proposals for implementing the recommendations. The recommendations will then be approved or rejected by a committee staffed by Olmert himself, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Foreign Minister Livni, Vice Premier Shimon Peres, Transportation Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, Trade Minister Eli Yishai and Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Although the Knesset is scheduled to hold a special session Thursday to discuss the Winograd findings, PM Olmert has made it clear that he will not respond to the report or even take part in the discussion until the final draft is published.

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