Top Official Tells Olmert to Quit: Israeli Foreign Minister Poised As Successor

By Joel Greenberg, Chicago Tribune

May 3–JERUSALEM — For two days after the bombshell report by an official panel that pronounced Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s conduct of last summer’s war in Lebanon a “serious failure,” Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni kept silent.

In the chorus of calls on Olmert to resign, the voice of Livni, who as vice prime minister would probably succeed him, was not heard.

True to her reputation for integrity that is above petty politics, and perhaps reflecting habits of discretion learned years ago when she worked for the Mossad spy agency, Livni lay low and avoided finger-pointing.

But Wednesday she broke her silence, saying at a news conference that she had told her boss and party leader to step down.

Livni spoke after a meeting with Olmert at his office, and her announcement piled more pressure on the embattled prime minister, confronting him with a direct challenge from his deputy in the Cabinet and top rival in the governing Kadima party.

“In the meeting with the prime minister I expressed my opinion that resignation is the right thing for him to do,” Livni said. “I have not worked and I am not working for the ouster of the prime minister. It is a decision he has to make.”

Olmert continued to insist Wednesday that he is not going anywhere, but Livni, 48, who has consistently scored well in popularity polls, appeared to be positioning herself to become his successor.

The time has come, Livni said, to “restore public faith in the government.” Kadima should stay at the helm and in future primaries “choose a leadership that it and the public can trust,” she said, adding that she would stay in the Cabinet and run for the party leadership.

The challenge from Livni was not entirely unexpected. As Olmert’s party rival and Israel’s second-ever female foreign minister, she had been seen as a candidate to succeed him someday. Golda Meir, the first woman to serve as Israel’s foreign minister, went on to serve as prime minister in the 1970s.

From Likud to Kadima

The daughter of a Polish-born member of the pre-state Irgun underground, Livni worked four years for Mossad and practiced law before she was elected to parliament in 1999 as a member of the rightist Likud party, where she became one of its more dovish members.

She followed former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Olmert into the new centrist Kadima party more than two years ago, taking her place in the ranks of its leadership. Her move to Kadima capped her evolution from hawk to centrist who accepts the creation of a Palestinian state while safeguarding Israel’s security.

As foreign minister, Livni has held quiet talks with Palestinians, developed a close working relationship with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and visited Washington, meeting President Bush.

Hours before she spoke out Wednesday, Olmert suggested at a Cabinet meeting called to discuss the war report that news of his imminent political demise was premature.

“To all those who are quick to exploit this report to reap political gains of one kind or another, I recommend, take it slow,” Olmert said.

The Cabinet agreed to carry out the investigative panel’s recommendations for improved decision-making and crisis management and to set up a committee to oversee implementation.

Olmert told ministers that it was his government’s job to remedy its mistakes and that another government would not carry out the report’s recommendations, said Cabinet Secretary Israel Maimon.

“The easiest thing for me to do is to throw down the keys and say, ‘Thank you very much, I served the people of Israel, let others handle it,’ ” Maimon quoted Olmert as saying. “No, it is my responsibility to deal with the failings.”

Olmert faced down a short-lived mutiny attempt in his own party after the leader of the Kadima faction in parliament, Avigdor Yitzhaki, called on Olmert to step down, then himself resigned after failing to line up rank-and-file support. At a Kadima faction meeting that was expected to be a showdown, Olmert easily prevailed, participants said.

Harsh verdict in polls

But the verdict among ordinary Israelis was harsher. Polls published in Israeli newspapers Wednesday showed that at least two-thirds of Israelis want Olmert to resign and that if elections were held today, Likud, led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would win. A mass protest rally is planned for Thursday in Tel Aviv.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who was harshly criticized in the report, weighed resignation Wednesday but ultimately decided to stay on, aides said.

Peretz heads the Labor party, a key partner in Olmert’s coalition, and is facing a stiff challenge from four opponents in party primaries later this month. His ouster could lead to the party’s withdrawal from the coalition, a move that could topple the government.

In Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the guerrilla group that fought the Israelis, said Wednesday that the report’s findings of failures vindicated his claim of victory.

“An important outcome of this commission is that it has finally and officially decided the issue of victory and defeat,” he said. “This commission spoke about a very big defeat.”

jogreenberg@tribune.com

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About Tzipi Livni

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has a varied background in government and politics. The 48-year-old mother of two:

–Earned a law degree at Bar-Ilan University and was a lieutenant in the Israeli army.

–Worked for the Mossad spy agency in 1980-84.

–Started in politics as a member of the hard-line Likud party, following the lead of her father, Eitan Livni, who was an underground fighter before the formation of the state of Israel and later became a hawkish politician. Tzipi Livni was elected to parliament under the Likud banner in 1999.

–Left Likud with Ariel Sharon to form the Kadima party in 2005, serving in Sharon’s Cabinet overseeing the absorption of immigrants.

–Moved up to head the Foreign Ministry when Sharon suffered a stroke in January 2006.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Chicago Tribune

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