By Stan Goodenough
Jun 12, 2008
The unraveling of Israel's coalition government accelerated Wednesday and Thursday, after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert surrendered to pressure from within his own Kadima Party, giving the green light to the holding of primaries that are likely to see him ousted from the leadership.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Labor Party leader and Defense Minister Ehud Barak followed hard on the tail of Olmert's reversal by issuing an ultimatum Thursday threatening to vote for new elections on June 25 if the prime minister refuses to step down.
"We prefer governmental stability, and if we can build a government that appeals to us in this Knesset, we will consider establishing it together," the leftist daily Ha'aretz quoted Barak as saying.
"If not, we will go to elections."
But Kadima members were scrambling to ensure their supporters that the dreaded elections - which polls say would see their party dealt a serious blow and a new government installed under the likely leadership of Likud Party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu - will not happen now.
Barak's threat was simply political maneuvering, charged Kadima MK Tzahi Hanegbi. "As defense minister, he is well aware of the sensitive strategic issues that are on the government's table" and so would not really bring about its collapse. However, he could now "approach his colleagues who urge him to leave the government, and tell them that he set an ultimatum for Kadima."
As for Kadima, "We have set the primaries in motion, and early elections are now off the agenda," Hanegbi claimed.
Analysts expect Kadima will hold its primaries in early September.
Meanwhile the Likud Party insists that it will push for those early elections, which it would like to see take place in November, by calling for this Knesset's dissolution in a bill it plans to submit next week.
Another coalition partner, the ultra-orthodox Shas Party, has pledged to support that bill.