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Olmert to the people: I can't hear you.
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners May 4, 2007 |
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's associates downplayed the massive rally Thursday night in Tel Aviv, calling it "irrelevant."
"We have already known what the public thought for a long time because of the polls," a source close to Olmert said, the Jerusalem Post reported. "It doesn't matter how many people came to the square, because decisions are made in the Knesset and not in demonstrations, because we are not a banana republic. And anyway, public opinion will soon flip in our favor."
Olmert's strategy apparently will be to implement the Winograd Commission's interim recommendations in an attempt to persuade it to recommend that he remain in office in the final report, due for release in August. The prime minister has been quoted as saying that if the committee called upon him to quit in that report, which covers the rest of the Lebanon war, he would promptly resign.
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"It doesn't matter how many people came to the square, because decisions are made in the Knesset and not in demonstrations, because we are not a banana republic."
Olmert associate, dismissing the significance of the rally
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Sources close to the committee have admitted that they did not call for Olmert to quit in the interim report because they wanted to allow him to face the reality of their recommendations on his own, but they have hinted that he would not be so lucky next time, the Post reported.
Olmert's advisers remain divided over whether to make the Foreign Ministry part of an expected cabinet reshuffle or to try to stifle Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's political aspirations by keeping her in office, thus keeping his political "friends close, and his enemies closer."
Olmert and Livni did not speak or make eye contact, despite their sitting next to each other at Thursday's Knesset session. Defense Minister Amir Peretz didn't even show up, prompting mockery from the Knesset podium.
Livni told reporters in the Knesset cafeteria that she "hadn't closed the door on quitting," but insisted that "Quitting is an act of protest and not necessarily an act of leadership."
The most immediate threat to the Olmert government occurs on May 13, when the Labor party is expected to vote on whether to remain in the government.
Labor secretary general Eitan Cabel, who resigned from the cabinet earlier this week, said he would call for his party to quit the government if Olmert remains. "There is no reason not to cooperate with another candidate from Kadima," said MK Ophir Pines-Paz, who initiated the central committee meeting. "We won't interfere with Kadima's decision as long as it offers a worthy alternative to Olmert."
Pines-Paz, a candidate for leadership of the Labor party who resigned earlier from the government, has vowed to camp out outside the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem till Olmert resigns or is forced from office. He reportedly will be joined by veteran protester Moti Ashkenazi, who camped out after the Agranat commission on the 1973 war that forced Golda Meir from office.
Olmert also faces another test in the Knesset next Monday in no-confidence votes due to the conclusions of the Winograd report. Some Labor MKs are expected stay away from the plenum or support the motion.
Former talk-radio broadcaster MK Shelly Yachimovich of Labor is among them. On Thursday, she called on Peretz to resign and distance himself from what she called the "disgraceful behavior" of the prime minister. Peretz himself may support the initiative to abandon Olmert's government, Haaretz reported.
MK Marina Solodkin (Kadima) also said she would no longer support the government.
In attempt to shore up support for the government in the event of a Labor defection, Cabinet secretary Yisrael Maimon and Olmert's adviser Oved Yehezkel met MK Avraham Ravitz (United Torah Judaism) on Thursday to ask for the orthodox religious party's backing the government from outside the coalition.
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