The Labor party is rethinking its position in the government coalition after more than 150,000 protestors gathered Thursday night in Tel Aviv to demand the Prime Minister’s ouster. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is facing a growing grassroots movement, which has brought political figures together with concerned citizens in their drive to force him to resign. The Prime Minister was held responsible by the recently published interim report of the Winograd Committee for the mismanagement of the Second Lebanon War last summer, together with Defense Minister Amir Peretz and former IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz. Despite increasing calls for his resignation, including from within his Kadima party, PM Olmert has not budged from his intention to continue to run the country, regardless of how unpopular he might be. Reacting to thousands of citizens who poured into Tel Aviv to tell him to “Go Home” and hold “Elections Now” the beleaguered Prime Minister said he respected the demonstrators for expressing their views in a “legitimate and democratic way” but would not step down. “It is not right from my standpoint to resign,” he said. “My reasoning is that the Winograd Commission report was issued in order that mistakes will be corrected quickly.” PM Olmert’s resignation may be forced upon him from a completely different direction, however. The day after the publication of the report, Labor Minister-Without-Portfolio Eitan Cabel announced his resignation and urged others to do the same. Although no one joined him, Labor Knesset Member Ofir Pines-Paz, who resigned earlier to protest Yisrael Beiteinu’s entry to the government, demanded that his party, the second largest in the coalition, abandon the government. Now the Labor Party’s central committee plans to convene on May 13th to discuss whether or not to quit the Olmert coalition, or possibly to remain if the government were to be led by another Kadima party member. “There is no reason not to cooperate with another candidate from Kadima,” said MK Pines-Paz. “We won’t interfere with Kadima’s decision, as long as it offers a worthy alternative to Olmert.” If Labor pulls out, the Kadima party will be left without a majority in the Knesset. MK Paz-Pines is planning to erect a tent opposite the Prime Minister's house in Jerusalem to protest his refusal to resign. He will be joined by Motti Ashkenazi, who led the grassroots protest campaign against the Golda Meir government after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Paz-Pines will not be in the tent 24 hours a day, however: he says he will be busy campaigning in the Labor primaries, so the protest will be a part-time endeavor. Peretz Can’t Help Defense Minister Peretz will be of little use to the Prime Minister in his bid to remain at the helm. The Defense Minister was severely censured for his lack of military experience and his unwillingness to consult with others who had more expertise. The report listed among the Defense Minister’s failures the fact that he “did not ask for the IDF’s operational plans nor did he examine them.” The Commission was blunt in its criticism of Peretz: “…the Minister of Defense failed in fulfilling his functions. Therefore, his serving as Minister of Defense during the war impaired Israel’s ability to respond well to its challenges.” The Defense Minister also faces a stiff challenge to retaining the leadership of his own party. Sources say it is likely DM Peretz will be toppled from his post in the Labor party primary elections scheduled for the end of this month. . Lt.-Gen. Halutz, the third leader named by the Winograd report as having major responsibility for the outcome of the war, resigned months ago after an internal probe severely criticized his leadership of the military prior to and during the conflict. The Israeli army lost 119 soldiers, and 41 Israeli civilians were also killed by more than 4,000 Hizbullah rocket attacks.
