Kadima lost way under Olmert, says Livni

Author: 
Reuters
Publication Date: 
Tue, 2008-07-29 03:00

JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has stepped up a campaign to oust Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, charging yesterday that their centrist Kadima party had lost its way under his leadership.

Livni, a favorite in public opinion polls to succeed Olmert, whose tenure has been threatened by a series of corruption probes, spoke at a rally in Jerusalem ahead of a party leadership vote scheduled for mid-September.

“The sense of hope that had been a part of the establishment of Kadima has been lost along the way,” Livni said, according to a transcript of her remarks released by a spokesman yesterday.

The Kadima party was founded by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2005 after an Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip split his extreme right-wing Likud party. Olmert took over in January 2006 when Sharon fell into a coma after a stroke.

Livni heads to Washington today for talks with Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is pressing the sides to reach a peace deal before President George W. Bush’s term ends in January.

Police investigations of Olmert have weakened his political authority. Livni told the party forum she was not sure the US aim to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal this year could be met. “The best efforts will be made to meet the 2008 target, but what is most important is the issue of substance,” a Livni aide quoted her as saying.

Livni said Israel favored the establishment of a Palestinian state on land now occupied by Israel, but objected to demands for Palestinian refugees to return to former homes in what is now the Jewish state, a key issue in the negotiations.

Main category: 
Old Categories: