Katsav: Olmert to Form Next Coalition
Excerpts;
President Moshe Katsav decided on Wednesday to assign Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with the task of forming the next coalition.
The president’s office announced that it invited Olmert to come to Beit Hanassi on Thursday, after which the decision was expected to be announced formally.
On Tuesday, after Labor Chairman Amir Peretz phoned the president to express his support for Olmert as the next prime minister, Katsav revealed that there were no parties opposed to Olmert forming the next government.
Coalition talks were underway between Kadima and Labor to enable the latter to join the government as the second-largest party. After refusing his request for the Finance Ministry, it appeared likely that Labor Chairman Amir Peretz would be appointed defense minister.
Hareidi MK: Child Support in Return for Coalition
Coalition Demands Threaten Budget Limits
Commentary;
Do the Chareidim REALLY expect Kadima to fulfill or honor any agreement, oral, written or otherwise? This author thinks NOT! Are the ones crunching the numbers honest? As that teacher used to say; figures lie and liars figure. And what about the huge budget surplus for the first three months of 2006? Once again, “Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me!” MB
Excerpts;
Instead of ending the uncertainty that has plagued Israel for months, last week’s general election has thrown the country into even greater political disarray.
For many observers, it is an unfolding answer to prayer.
The end result has blown out of the water the long-forecast massive Kadima Party win that would have made Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert the elected leader of the country.
It led, Sunday, to a sudden push towards a government that would make social issues its top priority and put the whole “peace process” on the back burner.
As this is being written Monday, that initiative has triggered tensions in the Labor Party. And the most recent developments are seeing other parties see-saw back and forth regarding the individual they want to have as prime minister.
All this would have been avoided had the pundits and pollsters been proved prophetic. Olmert would have been able to begin implementing his “convergence plan” right after assembling a coalition whose direction he would have been free to set.
That plan would see 80,000 Jews forced out of their Judean and Samarian homes, those homes destroyed, and 90 percent of Israel’s biblical heartland irretrievably given to the Islamic Arab world.
When the voting booths closed last Tuesday, Olmert thought he had it in the bag.
“Today, Israeli democracy has spoken its piece, in a loud and clear voice,” he proclaimed in his victory speech. “Israel wants Kadima.”
But the record low voter turnout, the final tally, and the subsequent and ongoing fallout from the election all give that assertion the lie.
What Israeli democracy has declared in a loud and clear voice is that Israel does not want Kadima. Israel does not want Olmert. Israel does not want “convergence.”
And for the untold numbers of Jews and Christians who fasted and in prayer pleaded for the annulling of that plan, these events amount to a resounding answer from the Lord.
