Olmert Shores Up His Coalition

By Tzippe Barrow

CBN News - Jerusalem Bureau

May 6, 2007

CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - Despite last week's release of the Winograd Commission's findings citing the failure of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz in their handling of the Second Lebanon War, both have opted to stay in their respective positions.

Former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz, also soundly criticized in the report for his failings during last summer's war, resigned his position in mid-January.

Meeting with Ehud Barak

On Saturday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, remembered for his May 2000 withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon and for the Camp David Summit two months later.

Barak's unprecedented offer to the late Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Yasser Arafat called for uprooting almost all the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank"), turning over all of Gaza, and giving the PA sovereignty over the eastern half of Jerusalem.

Arafat rejected the offer and launched the second intifada in September 2000.

After five months of countrywide terrorist attacks, Barak was soundly defeated in February 2001 by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and left the political scene rather than join the Sharon government.

Barak hopes to jumpstart his political comeback by being elected chairman of the Labor party in the May 28 primaries.

Other candidates for Labor chairman include former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon and Member of Knesset (parliament) Ofer Pines-Paz, who resigned from the Cabinet earlier this year when the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party joined the coalition.

Both Ayalon and Pines-Paz want to see Labor out of the current coalition, a move that could pave the way for early elections. Sunday, Pines-Paz set up a protest tent outside the prime minister's Jerusalem residence to call for his resignation.

In exchange for Barak's commitment to remain in the coalition, Labor would keep its ministerial posts, clearing the way for Barak's possible appointment as defense minister.

'I'll not run away from my duties' says Peretz

On Saturday, Defense Minister Amir Peretz announced he'll remain at the helm of the Defense Ministry to help implement the recommendations of the Winograd Commission. That is, until Labor's primaries in three weeks, when Peretz hopes to be reelected party chairman and swap out the defense ministry for the finance ministry.

Current Finance Minister Avraham Hirschon, on a three-month leave pending the outcome of embezzlement allegations, is unlikely to return to his post.

As former head of the Histadrut Labor Union, Peretz feels better qualified to handle the country's finances than its defenses. During his tenure as Histadrut chairman, he was well known for calling nationwide strikes that brought the country to a halt and cost the economy millions of shekels.

Olmert and Livni Will Work Together

Following Sunday's meeting between Prime Minister Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to "iron out their differences" after Livni's call for his resignation, the prime minister's office released a statement saying that Livni "agreed to continue working together as part of the government headed by Ehud Olmert."

Sunday's announcement came on the heels of accusations Saturday by the prime minister's office alleging that Livni lied in her testimony to the Winograd Commission.

Livni's spokesmen in the Foreign Ministry countered the remark by saying that the foreign minister wasn't interested "in confrontation."

Implementing the Commission's Findings

Last week the prime minister set up two committees to implement the findings of the Winograd Commission. Olmert appointed himself head of the committee of ministers and Amnon Lipkin-Shakak, a former IDF chief of staff, head of the committee of experts.

On Wednesday, Olmert plans to call a meeting of the security cabinet to brief his ministers on the details of the two committees.

Sources: The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, YNet

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