Word: olmert
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Hounded by allegations of corruption, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resigned on Sept. 21 after 33 months in office, but he will remain as head of an interim government until a new ruling coalition is formed by the country's quarrelsome parties...
...onerous task of forging a new coalition from among the 13 parties in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, will be taken on by Tzipi Livni, Olmert's Foreign Minister and his replacement as the newly elected head of the centrist Kadima party...
...Olmert's aides say he is likely to step down on Sept. 21, after conferring with President Shimon Peres. On tour in the Negev desert while his party voted, Olmert told a group of students, "I decided to resign with pain, not with pleasure, I must say, really with pain." He added, less convincingly, "I have no bitterness, no anger." Olmert was hoping that the primaries race between Livni and Mofaz would be forced into a run-off, giving him a few extra weeks at the helm...
...Livni wants Olmert out. She is eager to take over, telling her supporters after her win that she wants to form a new Cabinet "as quickly as possible in the face of serious threats facing Israel." Israel's generals say the nation's gravest threat is the possibility of a nuclear attack from Iran, though it now appears doubtful that Israel alone, without a green light from Washington, would launch an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities...
...Livni says she believes in a two-state solution with the Palestinians as the only way for Israel to remain a Jewish and democratic state. Yet she will face the same lack of support for the peace process among her hawkish coalition partners, and Kadima Party members, that thwarted Olmert...