Israeli Government Gets More Bad News

Prime Minister Olmert had enough of a problem hanging on to power in Israel with the official report released last month blaming him for recent failures of the Israeli military, including the recent invasion of Lebanon which accomplished nothing for Israel. Even recent newspaper polls have shown that a majority of the population would like to see him resign.

But he was able to keep a slim majority in the Israeli parliament with the help of some other parties, and refused to resign. But it now looks like the end for Olmert may be getting near.

One of the parties in his ruling coalition is the Labour party, which was led by Amir Peretz. The Labour party is in the midst of an election to choose its leader. Olmert was hoping that Peretz would be re-elected, because both of his opponents for Labour party leadership have said they would pull the party out of the ruling coalition unless Olmert resigns.

But Peretz did not do well in the election. He has actually finished a poor third in the voting. Although the final talley is not in, it looks like his opponents, Ehud Barak and Ami Ayalon, will have to have a run-off to see which one will be the new leader of the Labour party.

Barak was the Israeli prime minister from 1999 to 2001. Ayalon has just been in parliament for a year, but was the former head of Israel's interal security department. Regardless of which one wins, it looks like the Israeli government will soon fall. Olmert cannot survive a no-confidence vote without the Labour parties support.

It's anybody's guess who the Israelis will pick as prime minister now, but it is almost a certainty that Olmert will not last much longer. This is probably a good thing since the general populace has lost faith in him.

(In the picture above, Barak is on the left and Ayalon is on the right)