RAMALLAH: The scheduled vote on the motion calling for the Knesset’s dissolution has been put off indefinitely after Israel’s ruling Kadima Party agreed to elect a new chairman by September 2008.
In a predawn deal, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima Party told the Labor Party that it will hold primary elections by Sept. 25. The primary is likely to oust Olmert as Kadima leader.
Olmert and Labor Party leader and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were engaged in all-night mediation efforts to postpone a vote on the preliminary reading of a bill to disperse the Knesset. Earlier this week, the Labor faction agreed it would support dissolving the Knesset, prompting Olmert to threaten dismissals of Labor ministers in the government who supported the move.
The deal came a month after Olmert’s popularity was dealt a severe blow by a US businessman’s testimony in a corruption case against the Israeli leader. The businessman said he handed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Olmert in cash-stuffed envelopes, in part to finance a lavish lifestyle that included a penchant for fancy hotels and cigars.
The Labor-Kadima agreement prompted Labor to rescind its support for a motion to dissolve the Parliament, which had been expected to pass later yesterday.
Labor’s leader, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, threatened after last month’s dramatic court testimony to force new elections unless Olmert resigned or agreed to Kadima primaries. The compromise allowed both Olmert and Barak to save face.
Olmert can remain in office and keep his coalition intact, while Barak can tell supporters that he is forcing Kadima to change its leader.
Kadima officials say Olmert has not ruled out running in the party primary, hoping to clear his name after a cross-examination of the American businessman, Morris Talansky, slated for July 17. But opinion polls show Olmert to be extremely unpopular — both within the party and among the general public — and unlikely to win. His likely successor would be Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni or Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz. Livni, the chief peace negotiator with the Palestinians, is expected to push forward with US-backed efforts to reach a final peace deal before President Bush leaves office next January. The more hawkish Mofaz, a former military chief, would most likely slow down or break off the talks with both the Palestinians and Syria. The Labor-Kadima deal was overwhelmingly approved by Kadima members later yesterday. It canceled the dispersal vote in Parliament just hours before it was scheduled.
Although yesterday’s vote was considered only a preliminary move under parliamentary rules, Olmert had threatened to fire any government minister who supported the motion.
Such a move would have left Olmert without a parliamentary majority and begun a process that was expected to bring elections by the end of the year. Currently, elections are scheduled in 2010.
