Israel’s foreign minister urged Ehud Olmert to quit.
In the biggest challenge yet to the prime minister’s rule, Tzipi Livni revealed Wednesday that she had advised Olmert to step down after a commission of inquiry blasted his performance during last summer’s Lebanon war.
“I told the prime minister that I thought to resign was the right thing to do,” Livni told reporters. “There are others saying what I have been saying. I believe the prime minister listens to things that are said. I don’t know what the outcome will be.”
Livni said she would oppose calling early elections, preferring to see Olmert’s Kadima Party stay in power.
“Kadima needs to choose its leadership in a democratic manner, in a primary, and when the time comes I plan to submit my candidacy,” Livni said. “Now is the time to restore the public’s trust in the government.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
