Labor Party chairman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak is determined to remove his party from the coalition and topple the government, even if the Winograd Report includes no personal recommendations.
Though it is widely believed that Labor is anxious to remain in the government for as long as possible, Barak will not reverse his public promise to quit the coalition after the release of the final findings of the Winograd Report. So reports the daily Israel Today (Yisrael HaYom), based on unnamed leading Labor party members.
The Winograd Commission was appointed by the Olmert government a year ago to investigate the government's handling of the Second Lebanon War. Its interim report sharply criticized Prime Minister Olmert, then-Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz. The latter two have already left their posts, while Olmert remains.
It was recently reported that the Winograd Commission might not make negative recommendations regarding specific personages, prompting speculation that Labor would no longer have a justification to quit the government. In light of the reports, the Winograd Commission has announced that it will make a final decision in the coming days as to whether or not to issue personal recommendations.
However, Labor ministers Ben-Eliezer, Herzog and Simchon have expressed the hope that Barak will reconsider quitting the government. "Barak never promised to quit simply based on the date of the publication of the Winograd Commission," Herzog said.
Wrong, according to the Israel Today report. The Labor party sources say that Barak "always related to the date of the Winograd Report as the beginning of the process, and he never made it contingent upon how sharp or critical the report might be - unless of course it says that Olmert made no mistakes at all, which is quite unlikely."
A poll taken last week by the Dialog Institute shows that new elections would bring the Likud 28 seats, more than double its representation today, while Olmert's Kadima would plunge from 29 to 13.
MK Ophir Pines of Labor, who resigned his Cabinet position this past February when the more right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party entered the coalition - and demanded that the rest of Labor quit along with him - was the original author of the call for Labor's departure from the government. "If the Prime Minister does not resign before the publication of the final Winograd report," says the Pines-authored resolution later approved by the Labor Party Central Committee, "Labor will end its partnership with his government and will work to either establish a new government or to hold new elections."
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