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THE most important primary for our 2008 election may be yet to come - the Kadima Party primary in Israel in mid or late September. It pits liberal-leaning Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni against hardliner and former Army Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz. (Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to sit out the contest and concentrate on staying out of jail.)

IsraelNN.com) Avigdor Lieberman, whose Yisrael Beiteinu party is a critical part of Olmert's coalition, will meet with the Prime Minister on Tuesday - and is likely to announce his party's departure from the government on Wednesday. Signs of Lieberman's discontent have been rife over the past two days. They include, most notably, the beginning of PA-Israel final-status negotiations today (Monday), and Olmert's statement on Sunday that the continued existence of the unauthorized outposts in Judea and Samaria "is a disgrace." 78 - 23= 55, or Less Than Half Olmert's 78-member coalition is dependent on the continued presence of the 11...

Life in southern Israel is unbearable. Since last January, on average, 6.3 mortars and rockets have been fired from Gaza on southern Israel every day. As Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i warned the heads of the communities around Gaza last week, due to the improvements in the Palestinian arsenal since Israel vacated Gaza two years ago, the Palestinians now field missiles and rockets with extended ranges that place 130,000 Israelis under threat of missile attack. Wednesday, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi made clear that if Israel wishes to secure its citizens there is only one thing it...

If elections were held today, the governing Kadima party would receive a mere nine mandates, according to a telephone poll carried out by the Smith Institute for Ynet. While Kadima is collapsing in public opinion, favor is returning for the Likud party. According to the poll, Likud would triumph in hypothetical elections with a full 32 mandates. Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu was perceived as the person best suited to serve as prime minister, earning 34 percent support and beating out his competitors by a large margin. After Netanyahu, those surveyed favored Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Labor Knesset Member Ami...

Excerpt - 07:09 Report: PM mulling Ehud Barak, Gabi Ashkenazi as new defense minister (Army Radio) 07:07 Olmert aides: PM plans to remove Peretz from Defense Ministry (Army Radio

There is the possibility that some of the Likud renegades in Kadima, rueing the day on which they decided to throw in their lot with that ill-starred political creation, will return to the ranks of the Likud. And that some of the Labor rejects, now eating humble pie, will be mercifully accepted into the ranks of Labor. And that a politically reshuffled Knesset will bring down the Olmert government and vote confidence in a new prime minister and his government. Or else, perish the thought, new elections. This political uncertainty is painful to contemplate at a time when Israel faces...

The IDF (Israel Defense Force) reserve soldiers are beginning to march against the government, specifically, against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, and all others who have failed the people of Israel. No doubt, if the law allowed, IDF soldiers currently in uniform would join them as eyewitnesses to the colossal failures of the government and the top military commanders. This does not, however, stop the people from joining our patriotic reservists in their march to demand a change to clean government, and from a military high command that is so politicized...

Political earthquake: A poll published on Friday in the Yedioth Ahrnonoth daily shows that 63 percent of Israelis feel that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert failed in managing the war in Lebanon and should resign. Only 29 percent believe the prime minister is fit to continue leading the country. About 74 percent of those polled said Defense Minister Amir Peretz mishandled the war and should resign his post. A mere 20 percent said Peretz should keep his post. Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Dan Halutz faired slightly better than his superiors with 54 percent saying he should resign...

Tisha b’Av is the Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the ancient Jewish temples, which both fell on the same day of the calendar. Last year, Tsh’a b’Av fell on August 14, the day Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza. This year August 14 marked the day when Israel’s cabinet accepted the UN’s cease fire in the current war. Because Judaism follows a lunar calendar, Tisha b’Av this year fell on August 3. I, nonetheless, believe that this year’s Tisha b’Av marks not only the end of the sacred temples but, with the withdrawal from Gaza and now the...

Most wartime leaders look for “an exit strategy,” but in the case of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, many Israelis are wondering if there is an “entry strategy.” Indeed, in a striking statement that surprised reporters this morning (Wednesday) Prime Minister Olmert seemed to be blaming the Israeli army for not moving earlier and more aggressively to root out terrorists shooting rockets into Israel. “Until yesterday morning no operative plans were presented to to expand our military activities in Lebanon beyond where our army now stand,” declared Mr Olmert in his first live news briefing with reporters since the war...

Talkin' about a revolution ByCaroline Glick It is hard to know how the current phase of the war will end. If all goes according to Condoleezza Rice's plan, the UN Security Council will vote today on the draft cease-fire resolution negotiated between the US and France. Whatever marginal diplomatic gains the Olmert government may try to convince the public the draft resolution contains for Israel, the fact is that regardless of the language eventually adopted, and whatever force of French, Egyptian, Turkish, Italian and German soldiers will or will not be deployed to Lebanon, all any cease-fire resolution will do...

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reluctantly allowed the Israeli Defense Forces this week to begin a more extensive ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip after a Palestinian rocket traveled further than any projectile ever fired from Gaza, hitting the strategic, populated city of Ashkelon about eight miles from the Gaza border. Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz announced the new IDF operation was aimed in part at stopping the regular Qassam rocket fire from Gaza into nearby Jewish communities. An Israeli soldier and at least 23 Palestinians, mostly militants, have been killed in street battles since yesterday,...

Kadima official: Realignment impossible As Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gathers international support for his unilateral realignment plan, senior Kadima official says Israel will earn international backing for negotiated settlement Attila Somfalvi Prime Minister Ehud Olmert continues to travel the world in an attempt to sell his realignment plan to western leaders and convince them of its necessity, but in his political fortress, Kadima, optimistic, or maybe critical, opinions are being voiced. Senior Kadima ministers told Ynet over the last couple of weeks that a unilateral realignment plan is impossible. The remarks were made by some of the most senior government...

The official website of Kadima USA, the American offices of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's political party, featured policy summaries that match, almost word-for-word, detailed paragraphs on the same topics published on the Texas Democratic Party's website. In many instances, the only differences between the Texas website and that of Kadima were the inclusion of the words "Kadima," "Jews" and "Israel" in the place of "Texas," "Democratic Party" and "America." Seventeen large, detailed policy descriptions on both sites were almost exactly the same. (One paragraph on the Kadima USA website actually spoke out against plagiarism.) In addition, the main logo on...

If all goes as planned, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meets today with US President George W. Bush in the White House, several thousand protesters from around the US and Canada will be across the Mall by the US Senate protesting Olmert's visit. These will not be the standard Israel haters from the Left or the Islamist crowd. They will be neither neo-Nazis nor Communists. Rather the planned protest is being organized by Israel's staunchest Jewish and Christian supporters. The people getting on buses to travel to Washington to protest Olmert's visit believe that Olmert's planned withdrawal from some 95...

Sources: U.S. won't view pullout line as final Israel-PA border WASHINGTON - The United States will not recognize a border created after a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank as Israel's permanent frontier, senior U.S. administration members said in unofficial conversations. Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is due to arrive in the U.S. capital during the third week of May, has not presented the administration with a detailed plan for the second withdrawal he promised voters, and sources in the administration say discussion of this is at a very preliminary stage. However, a number of sources said unofficially that...

Apr. 25, 2006 1:43 | Updated Apr. 25, 2006 19:12 Peretz, Olmert meet on ministers By SHEERA CLAIRE FRENKEL AND JPOST STAFF Labor Party chairman Amir Peretz and Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the proposed reduction of ministers and the elimination of deputy ministers in the new coalition government. Senior Kadima officials said that they expected Olmert to reduce the number of Kadima ministers by one, for a total of 11 Kadima ministers in the government. Kadima sources saw the move as a way of encouraging the rest of the coalition partners to make...

Ehud Olmert was facing a revolt on Monday in the ranks of his Kadima party with senior figures furious at losing out on key portfolios to Labour rivals as the new Israeli coalition government is drawn. Newspaper headlines made uncomfortable reading for the prime minister designate with a number of top Kadima candidates in last month's election accusing him of reneging on agreements and caving in during coalition talks. Uriel Reichman, who had been expected to be made education minister, announced late on Sunday that he was quitting political life after it became clear that the post would be one...

Apr. 22, 2006 11:23 | Updated Apr. 22, 2006 23:32 Olmert, Peretz agree on largest government ever By GIL HOFFMANOlmert and Peretz - partnersInterim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Labor Chairman Amir Peretz talk in the Knesset during its inaugural session. Photo: Associated PressIsrael will have its largest government in history with 27 ministers by the end of the week, according to an agreement reached on Thursday night between Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Labor chairman Amir Peretz, sources close to both men said Saturday. Olmert and Peretz met after 11 p.m. at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and...

In a first Israeli response to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's latest warnings against Israel, Kadima no. 2 Shimon Peres said on Saturday that Tehran's leader will eventually pay the price for his vigilant statements and actions. Speaking to an Israel Radio reporter, Peres said "Ahmadinejad's statements remind those of Saddam and he will end up the same way as Hussein has." On Friday Ahmadinejad called Israel a "rotten, dried tree" that will be annihilated by "one storm." Peres gave the statement as personal commentary. Israel did not, however, make an official response to Ahmadinejad's latest speech. "Ahmadinejad represents Satan, not...