Ehud Olmert threatened to fire his biggest partner in Israel’s coalition government.
The Israeli premier used Sunday’s Cabinet meeting to pass several ministers from the Labor Party notes in which he hinted they could be fired.
The threat came amid pledges by Labor — whose leader, Ehud Barak, is Olmert’s defense minister — to back a Knesset motion to dissolve parliament.
The motion, which will be voted on in first reading Wednesday, was filed by the right-wing opposition after bribery allegations surfaced against Olmert. He has denied wrongdoing and vowed to stay in office.
“A minister who calls for the replacement of the prime minister cannot continue sitting in government,” Tal Zilberstein, Olmert’s strategic adviser, told Army Radio.
Bereft of Labor, the government led by Olmert’s Kadima Party would no longer control a parliamentary majority.
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