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| By israelinsider staff and partners March 14, 2007 |
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Israel's ruling Kadima Party met in an emergency session on Wednesday to discuss mounting fears that early elections may be coming as a result of the government's failures in last summer's Lebanon war, Haaretz reported Wednesday.
Following the war against Hizbullah, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert established the Winograd Commission to probe the nation's preparedness for and the government execution of the conflict.
According to political sources, the report's conclusions, which will most likely include damaging information about Olmert's conduct before and at the beginning of last summer's war, will result in early governmental elections.
At the time, Olmert believed that the boundaries he set for the Winograd commission would spare him and other senior officials any personal blame for Israel's failure to decisively defeat Hizbullah.
But earlier this week, the panel of judges conducting the probe decided that Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and former IDF chief Dan Halutz will be named in their interim findings to be published next month.
Many within Kadima fear Olmert will be forced to resign, and that opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu will take advantage of the situation to bring about the downfall of the increasingly unpopular Kadima government.
Potential successors to the Prime Minister in Kadima include Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz and Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter, with Shimon Peres as a compromise candidate.
If early elections are held, polls indicate that Netanyahu's Likud will regain control of the government, and that Kadima will be reduced to only the fourth largest Knesset faction.
The Winograd Commission's announcement also worries the Labor Party, since the findings are scheduled to be published just one month before the party's primaries.
Peretz aides have said that the Defense Minister will not drop out of the race for Labor leadership; however, his opponents are already preparing for the possibility that Peretz will resign before the Labor elections.
Jerusalem Newswire contributed to this article. |
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