1. US Intervenes in Israeli Elections: Administration Backs Olmert

1. US Intervenes in Israeli Elections: Administration Backs Olmert

By Hillel Fendel

Acting PM Olmert has been invited to visit Washington next month, and a PA newspaper reports that the U.S. has asked the PA and Arab countries to make Olmert-supporting gestures.

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has replaced Ariel Sharon as the Kadima Party's prime ministerial candidate, is to visit Washington in February, just a month before Israel's national elections. Visits of this type invariably add to the invitee's stature in the perception of Israel's domestic public, and this will therefore help Olmert as the elections approach.

Olmert is also expected to become Israel's Prime Minister in the coming days, when Attorney General Menachem Mazuz declares that Sharon has become permanently incapacitated.

In addition, the U.S. has informed the PA and Arab countries that Olmert's stature must be strengthened as the elections approach in order that he "continue the process that Sharon started." So reports the PA's Arabic-language Al-Manar newspaper.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice issued a statement last night, commending Olmert on his apparent decision to permit eastern Jerusalem Arabs to participate in the PA elections later this month.

Most reports do not note that the Israeli decision stipulates that Hamas ballots will not be allowed into the Jerusalem post offices in which the voting will take place. Olmert informed Rice of this on Tuesday. In any event, the Israeli decision must be finalized at Sunday's Cabinet meeting.

Rice, in her statement praising Olmert's decision, stated the United States' view that there is no place in the political process for groups or individuals who espouse violence and reject Israel's right to exist. "To participate in a peace process of Israelis and Palestinians," she said, " the Palestinian partner must at least accept Israel's right to exist. To implement agreements on movement and access for the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian partner must be committed to preventing violence."

The Al-Manar newspaper reported that the U.S. is conducting secret contacts with the Palestinian Authority and Arab countries in an effort to have them help strengthen Olmert's stature. The U.S. informed them that it is interested in having Olmert head Kadima and "continue the process that Sharon began to solve the Palestinian-Israel conflict." The paper further reports that the Americans feel that Olmert is a "smart leader who will be able, with his advisors, to lead the peace process and rebuff the political machinations against him."

The U.S. even informed Olmert, according to the paper, that it would like him to keep Sharon's advisors on his team, especially Dov Weisglass and Shimon Peres.

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2. Mini-Crisis of Leadership in the Likud

By Hillel Fendel

Amidst conflicting reports of intra-party tensions, Netanyahu has finally convinced the Likud ministers to resign from the government. Holdout Foreign Minister Shalom will quit on Sunday.

The still-developing story began last night with the report that Likud Party leader Binyamin Netanyahu had informed the four Likud government ministers that they must quit the government.

The four ministers in question are Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Education Minister Limor Livnat, Health Minister Danny Naveh, and Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz. Netanyahu himself resigned as Finance Minister this past August - shortly before, and in protest of, the expulsion from Gush Katif and northern Shomron.

Netanyahu told the four that he was reinstating his original decision of last week that the Likud must quit the government. That decision, however, was suspended for reasons of "national responsibility" when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took ill. "We have a responsibility to the country," a senior Likud source said at the time, "and this not the time to discuss resignations." Netanyahu himself said then that all politicking should be put on hold for a few days.

However, in light of the fact that Kadima Party leaders themselves have already resumed politicking, Netanyahu decided that the Likud need no longer hold back from political moves. "Kadima is taking actions that mean the division of Jerusalem," he explained last night, "and the Likud cannot be an alternative to the regime while sitting in the government and carrying out its policies."

The four ministers, led by Netanyahu's rival Foreign Minister Shalom, decided not to accept the decree so fast. They first announced that they would not resign, and were greeted with threats that Netanyahu would instruct his many supporters in the Central Committee not to vote for them in today's party primaries.

The ministers then said, later this morning, that they would resign - but only on Sunday, after today's party primaries. Reports of a rebellion within the Likud filled the news reports.

By 11 AM, the Likud ministers apparently decided that they had gone too far. First Yisrael Katz, then Ministers Livnat and Naveh, deposited their resignation letters with Netanyahu or with the Cabinet secretariat, or said they would do so within a short time.

Naveh gave a letter to the Cabinet, stating his intention to resign but adding, "The time of the resignation is not yet known, and will be determined by MK Binyamin Netanyahu."

The lone hold-out was Minister Shalom, whose #2 place on the Likud list was reserved for him after the internal elections for party leader several weeks ago. In addition to flexing his muscles against Netanyahu, he was said not to want to resign from the Foreign Ministry at this time, with many foreign dignitaries scheduled to arrive and other prestigious events on schedule.

However, at 2 PM, he too announced that he would resign, but only this Sunday. He is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu at 4 PM.

Likud Party primaries for the list of Knesset candidates are being held today at the Tel Aviv Exhibition Grounds.