JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert bought himself more time in office yesterday, fending off a rebellion by coalition partners who had threatened to bring down his government if he did not resign over a burgeoning corruption probe.
In exchange for keeping his coalition together temporarily, Olmert was forced to allow internal elections in his centrist Kadima Party by late September. Rivals within Kadima are already jockeying for his job.
Olmert has been fighting for his political life for nearly two months, since allegations surfaced that he had taken hundreds of thousands of dollars, much of it in cash, from a New York businessman.
The prime minister has denied any wrongdoing, but testimony last month by the businessman, Morris Talansky, was considered especially damaging, and Olmert has since faced calls from former allies to step aside.
The most serious challenge to his authority has come from Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who leads Kadima's largest coalition partner, the center-left Labor Party. Barak had vowed to support a bill to dissolve the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in a vote scheduled for yesterday.
With Labor's support, the bill almost certainly would have passed. But the showdown was averted by the last-minute deal.
