Israel’s premier prevails over his critics

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert won critical backing from his party Wednesday night, beating back a move by his highest-ranking deputy and other party dissidents to oust him in the wake of a damaging report on the conduct of last summer’s war in Lebanon.

The Israeli leader called an emergency session of his Kadima party’s 29 members of parliament after Tzipi Livni, who serves as deputy prime minister and foreign minister, told him that he had lost the public’s support and should step down.

But Olmert told the caucus that he intended to stay in office and lead an overhaul of Israel’s national security apparatus “down to the last detail” recommended by an official panel of inquiry that censured him, his defense minister and the wartime chief of staff.

Participants in the three-hour meeting said three lawmakers, including Livni, spoke out for Olmert’s resignation. Outnumbered, the dissidents then joined in a statement of support for the prime minister’s position, pledging to “preserve governmental stability.”

“The party emerged united, and this is a great day for the party and for Olmert,” said Shimon Peres, the government’s third-ranking minister, who had lobbied to keep the party in line.

The prime minister is not out of trouble yet. His opponents plan a rally tonight in Tel Aviv, and the turnout could determine whether the storm of criticism unleashed Monday by the inquiry panel’s report grows or fizzles.

Even if Olmert weathers the crisis, some Israeli analysts predict that his departure is only a matter of time. Polls say at least two-thirds of Israelis want him to go, reflecting their sense of defeat in a 34-day war that failed to destroy Hezbollah or secure the release of two captured soldiers.

The report declared Olmert responsible for “serious failures” of judgment in rushing the army unprepared into battle. Aides have quoted him as saying that he would hand in his resignation if a follow-up report by the panel, due in August, recommends it.

Meanwhile, Olmert is fighting for his short-term political survival. At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, he said, “I suggest that all those who are in a hurry to take advantage of this report and make political gain -- slow down.”

Olmert has lobbied and won support from leaders of the other parties in his broad governing coalition: Labor, Israel Our Home, Shas and the Pensioners. Labor’s support is shaky because its discredited leader, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, faces likely defeat in a party primary this month.

So far, all four parties have been reluctant to quit the government, fearing that new elections would bring former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud Party, the front-runner in most voter-preference polls, back to power.

But until late Wednesday, Olmert appeared vulnerable to pressure by his own centrist party to step down. For 48 hours, the party’s parliamentary bloc chairman, Avigdor Yitzhaki, had been working behind the scenes to try to persuade other lawmakers to dump Olmert and install Livni in his place.

Livni, a 48-year-old former intelligence officer, had become Olmert’s chief rival within the government. Her popularity had risen as his declined. She complained of being excluded from key decisions. After supporting the decision to go to war last summer, she favored an early halt to the fighting and a quicker diplomatic solution.

After two days of silence on the war inquiry report, Livni met with Olmert on Wednesday afternoon for what witnesses described as a polite showdown.

“I told him that I thought to resign was the right thing to do,” she said to reporters afterward. “Now is the time to restore the public’s trust in government.”

But Olmert gently rebuffed her, and she stopped short of resigning from the Cabinet. At her news conference, she said she would stay to reform the government from within and would not actively work to oust the prime minister. “That’s a decision he’ll have to make,” she said.

Hours later, at the meeting of Kadima lawmakers, it was clear that Yitzhaki’s rebellion was over, at least for now. He resigned as chairman of the bloc and was replaced by an Olmert loyalist, Tzachi Hanegbi.

Political analysts said the dump-Olmert movement faltered in part because many Kadima lawmakers feared that Livni would have trouble holding the coalition together and avoiding elections. They said she was too dovish for Avigdor Lieberman, the hawkish leader of Our Home Israel; as a woman, she would not have the respect of Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party.

Now Olmert must decide whether to fire Livni. Some analysts said their working relationship, always difficult, would now be impossible. On the other hand, they added, she might emerge as a more dangerous rival if she leaves office.

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boudreaux@latimes.com