The Impeachment Hearing Room

Buckle your seat belts and look for a fast ride in Israel!

http://theimpeachmenthearingroom.blogspot.com/2008/07/olmert-to-resign-iran-attack-more.html (Previous Post)

Prime Minister Olmert announces he will not run in his Kadima party's leadership primary and will leave office to fight corruption allegations.

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fg-israel31-2008jul31,0,5937140.story?track=ntothtml

That means Israel, which has been negotiating with two Palestinian factions and Syria while grappling with how to confront Iran's nuclear ambitions, will be without effective leadership at least until October. (I am inclined to believe that the elections process will be moved up and the usual delays associated with rebuilding a coalition government will not take as long given the Anti-Iranian Issue on the front burner. Should Netanyahu win, as is expected at the moment, Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, could well be the quick settlment key as a kindred hawk, Netanyahu could give him proper placement satisfying the Kadima party in sofaras a new government is concerned. Ed.)

And as you see below, as I have benn preparing this post Netanyahu has already gone on the offensive in calling for early elections. The Iranian Issue, more than “Israeli Politics as usual” will dictate in the present climate. Rest assured that “The Post November 5^th Window” will be washed clean and available to open!

The power vacuum could even last into February, overlapping the change of U.S. presidential administrations, if a new Israeli government cannot be formed without general elections. (This assumption/analysis is pure folly!)

Netanyahu calls for early elections in Israel

(JERUSALEM - A day after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced he would depart political life, top rival Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel should get rid of its current governing coalition and go straight to early elections.

Polls show the Likud Party's Netanyahu — a former prime minister who takes a hard line on territorial concessions to the Arabs — would most likely win such a race if it were held today.

"This is a government that has come to the end of its road," Netanyahu told Israel Radio on Thursday. "It doesn't make any difference who heads Kadima, they are all part to a string of failures by this government.")

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the opposition Likud party, who leads in polls as the most popular candidate for prime minister, has voiced strong reservations about the peace initiatives.

At stake are the U.S.-backed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority over terms for a future Palestinian state. Israel is also talking indirectly with the more militant Palestinian group Hamas about a prisoner exchange and with Syria, through Turkish mediators, about a peace treaty.

Israel's succession struggle also comes amid sensitive discussions among its military and civilian leaders over how to confront what they believe is Iran's rush to develop a nuclear weapon. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a former prime minister, told U.S. officials in Washington this week that Israel would not rule out military action against Iran in the coming months.

Olmert will serve as a caretaker prime minister until his successor is chosen. He is likely to lean more heavily on his defense minister and Israel's military leaders in decisions about Iran, Israeli analysts said.

As soon as the election is over Olmert will be relegated to a dark closet. Ed.