Pressure grows on Israel's Olmert to step aside
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's foreign minister deepenedthe uncertainty over Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's ability tosurvive a corruption scandal by saying on Thursday their partyhad to prepare for a possible early election.
Olmert has responded with a business-as-usual approach to ademand by Defence Minister Ehud Barak that he step aside.
But the comments by Olmert's deputy, Foreign Minister TzipiLivni, and other members of their centrist Kadima party couldincrease pressure on the prime minister to go.
Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians,said Kadima should "take decisions" and start preparing for"any scenario", including an early general election and aninternal leadership vote.
Widely regarded as a top candidate to replace Olmert, Livnidid not call for Olmert to step down but said "values andnorms" must be upheld in Israeli politics.
Addressing members of his left-leaning Labour faction,Barak said he would force the issue if Olmert failed to act.
"The prime minister has to make decisions. Factions have tomake decisions, and if they don't, we will make the decisionsfor them," said Barak, whose party is Olmert's largestcoalition partner.
Olmert has made clear through aides that he has nointention of stepping down. At a welcoming ceremony forDenmark's prime minister on Thursday, Olmert made no referenceto Barak's call to go on leave or quit.
"I intend to discuss with the visiting prime minister ...the international effort to stop Iran's nuclear (programme),the regional peace process, the war against terror and thestrengthening of radical Islam in the Middle East andworldwide," Olmert said, hitting his usual talking points.
Olmert plans a three-day visit to Washington next week fortalks with U.S. President George W. Bush and a speech to theannual policy conference of a pro-Israel lobbying group.
POLITICAL TURMOIL
Barak threatened on Wednesday to pursue an early election,which would trigger political turmoil that could derailIsraeli-Palestinian peace talks, after a U.S. businessman toldan Israeli court he had handed Olmert envelopes with thousandsof dollars in cash.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino acknowledged that thescandal did take some attention away from Bush's goal to brokerpeace between Palestinians and Israelis before he leavesoffice.
"There's no doubt that it obviously takes up some oxygenwhen you're trying to deal with intense and complexnegotiations for the whole of the Middle East, especially thePalestinian territories and Israel," Perino told reporters.
"But the president believes that Israeli politics issomething the Israelis are going to have to deal with," shesaid.
A U.S. State Department spokesman said Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice plans to visit Israel "in the not-too-distantfuture" despite the country's political uncertainty. He gave nodate for such a visit.
Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz convened prosecutors andpolice officers on Thursday to discuss the way forward in theinvestigation against Olmert.
Mazuz issued a statement after the meeting saying theinvestigation would be speeded up "in order to complete it assoon as possible." He gave no precise timeframe for a decisionon whether to indict the prime minister.
Olmert has ridden out similar storms in the past. He haspledged to resign if charged and denied any wrongdoing inaccepting what he has described as above-board electioncampaign contributions.
Barak stopped short of making a move that would immediatelybring down the government and trigger a snap election. Pollssuggest the right-wing Likud under Benjamin Netanyahu woulddefeat Labour if a vote, not due until 2010, were held now.
The American Jewish businessman at the centre of the case,Morris Talansky, is due back in Israel in July when he will becross-examined by Olmert's lawyers.
Chief prosecutor Moshe Lador said after Talansky testifiedon Tuesday it was too early to tell if charges would be broughtagainst Olmert.
(Additional reporting by Avida Landau, Ari Rabinovitch,Jeremy Pelofsky and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Jon Boyle)