Friday 29 March 2024 
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'Israel' at tenterhooks after call on Olmert to go

Zionist regime was abuzz with speculation on Thursday after the country's war minister warned he would force early elections if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not resign over graft allegations.

"What does all this mean? Very simple: Elections in November. Why? Because the prime minister does not intend to take leave, resign or declare incapacitation," the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot newspaper said in an editorial reflecting a widespread view.

War minister and labour party leader Ehud Barak on Wednesday held a news conference to demand the prime minister resign over allegations he illegally received large amounts of cash from a US financier for his electoral campaigns and possibly for personal use.

Olmert, whose term ends in November 2010, said he had no intention of quitting, although an opinion poll on Thursday found that 70 percent of people surveyed thought he should go.

"I am going to continue to exercise my functions," the embattled Prime Minister said on Wednesday.

"Some people think that each time an investigation is launched, it has to lead to a resignation. But I don't share that opinion -- and I am not going to give up."

Olmert, 62, has denied any wrongdoing, although he has admitted receiving campaign donations.

But support for Olmert appeared to be waning rapidly even within his centrist Kadima party.

The regime's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is believed to be first in line to replace Olmert if he resigns.

Barak, himself a former premier, said on Wednesday that unless Kadima acts to form a new government, with labour's support, "we will work to decide on a new agreed early date for elections."

Without the support of labour's 17 MPs, Olmert's coalition government would lose its parliamentary majority in the 120-member Knesset.

Barak dropped the political bombshell one day after Zionist-American financier Morris Talansky testified before court that he had given Olmert vast amounts of cash.

Talansky said he had given Olmert at least 150,000 dollars in the 14 years before he became prime minister in 2006.

Zionist media said that even olmert's closest aides were pressing him to quit.

"The people closest to him are telling him: 'Ehud, for your self-respect, get up and go,'" Yediot Aharonot said.




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