The Labor Party of Israel is just like the Democratic Party of the USA, so Olmert survives, just like Bush. -- Yoshie
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_X2MVdZPBAI&refer=home> Olmert Survives No-Confidence Votes on Failures in Lebanon War By Jonathan Ferziger May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert survived three no-confidence motions brought by parliamentary opponents after a government commission's report blaming Olmert for being unprepared for last year's war in Lebanon. The motions failed to dislodge Olmert, whose governing coalition controls 78 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Olmert's Kadima Party and its four allied parties easily defeated the first bill 60 to 28 with nine abstentions and the other two by similar margins. <http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1178431591687&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull> May. 7, 2007 19:25 | Updated May. 8, 2007 3:20 Gov't survives 3 no-confidence motions By SHEERA CLAIRE FRENKEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hours before the no-confidence votes, the Labor faction decided by a 10-8 margin to allow its MKs to abstain. The move was seen as an indication of Labor's hesitancy to support the Olmert government. "The faction looks bad, because we are saying that we are in the government but we are acting like we are not," said Labor faction chairman Yoram Marciano. Marciano and all of the Labor ministers voted with the government, while several MKs, including Michael Melchior, Orit Noked, Shelly Yacimovich, Ami Ayalon, Avishay Braverman and Eitan Cabel abstained. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/world/middleeast/07cnd-mideast.html> May 7, 2007 Olmert Survives Three No-Confidence Motions By ISABEL KERSHNER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the rightist Likud bloc, called for new elections and told the incumbent government, which has pledged to implement the recommendations of the war report, "You are not the solution, you are the problem." The leader of the leftist Meretz party, Yossi Beilin, said that the lack of confidence had penetrated the public, the parliament, and even Mr. Olmert's own Kadima party. Mr. Beilin told the parliament that a government minister from the Kadima party had told him that Mr. Olmert, as prime minister, "poses a national danger to Israel." Still, there is no consensus on who, or what, should come next. Mr. Netanyahu is ranked as a favorite for the prime minister's job in recent opinion polls. For that reason, Mr. Beilin has argued that new elections are not necessary, and that the necessary change can come about through parliamentary procedures instead. According to the polls, at least two-thirds of the public would like to see Mr. Olmert go. -- Yoshie
