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Olmert unmoved by demand he step aside
2008-05-29
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert responded with a business-as-usual approach on Thursday to a demand by his defense minister to step aside over corruption allegations. But his deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, said their Kadima party should "take decisions" and start preparing for "any scenario," including an early general election and an internal leadership vote. Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, is widely seen as a top candidate to replace Olmert. She did not call in her comments to reporters for Olmert to step down, but said "values and norms" must be upheld in Israeli politics. Olmert made clear through aides on Wednesday he was staying on and, at a welcoming ceremony for Denmark's prime minister on Thursday, he made no reference to Labor Party leader Ehud Barak's call to go on leave or quit. "I intend to discuss with the visiting prime minister ... the international effort to stop Iran's nuclear (program), the regional peace process, the war against terror and the strengthening of radical Islam in the Middle East and worldwide," Olmert said, hitting his usual talking points. Olmert plans a three-day visit to Washington next week for talks with President George W. Bush and a speech to the annual policy conference of a pro-Israel lobbying group. Barak threatened on Wednesday to pursue an early election -- political turmoil that could derail Israeli-Palestinian peace talks -- after a U.S. businessman told an Israeli court how he had handed Olmert envelopes with thousands of dollars in cash. Amid the political uncertainty, Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz convened prosecutors and police officers on Thursday to discuss the way forward in the investigation against Olmert. Mazuz issued a statement after the meeting saying the investigation would be speeded up "in order to complete it as soon as possible." He gave no precise timeframe for a decision on whether to indict the prime minister. Olmert has ridden out similar storms in the past. He has pledged to resign if charged and denied any wrongdoing in accepting what he has described as above-board election campaign contributions. HAZY Barak, a former prime minister whose party is Olmert's main coalition partner, was hazy on what steps he might take, and when. He stopped short of making a move that would immediately bring down the government and trigger a snap election. Polls suggest the right-wing Likud under Benjamin Netanyahu would defeat Labor if a ballot, not due until 2010, were held now. A cartoon in Israel's most popular newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, illustrated what some commentators saw as Barak's failure to take stronger action. It showed Barak wearing bunny ears and holding a carrot, an allusion to Hebrew slang in which "rabbit" means "coward." The American Jewish businessman at the centre of the case, Morris Talansky, is due back in Israel in July, when he will be cross-examined by Olmert's lawyers. Chief prosecutor Moshe Lador said after Talansky testified on Tuesday it was too early to tell if charges would be brought against Olmert. (Additional reporting by Avida Landau, Editing by Jon Boyle)
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