Israel’s embattled Olmert heads to United States
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert heads to Washington on Monday weakened by a major crisis at home that cast a shadow over both his political future and the tenuous US-sponsored Middle East peace talks.
The three-day visit may offer the embattled premier a brief respite from the turmoil at home where he faces a crescendo of calls for his resignation over suspicions he unlawfully obtained vast sums of money from a US financier.
But Monday’s trip may well be his last as premier to Israel’s staunchest ally.
Olmert, 62, suffered two massive blows in quick succession this week when key coalition ally Defense Minister Ehud Barak demanded he quit and the cabinet number two, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, challenged his party leadership.
With the prospect of early elections growing daily, Olmert’s working visit is seen by many as his farewell from US President George W. Bush, whose hopes of seeing an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal this year appear to be fading fast.
For Bush, who called Olmert an “honest man” when news of the graft allegations emerged in early May, the premier’s potential demise threatens to shatter a major pillar of a Middle East strategy he hoped would be his legacy.
Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas pledged to try to reach a deal before Bush leaves the White House in January 2009 at the launching of the new peace talks at in Annapolis, Maryland last November.
Read more here at Hurriyet
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