Last update - 00:00 05/05/2007
Peretz: After Labor primaries I`ll return defense, ask for finance
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
Defense Minister Amir Peretz, under pressure to resign over a scathing Lebanon war inquiry, reiterated on Saturday he intends to give up his post only after his Labor Party holds a leadership election on May 28.
Media reports have speculated Peretz might quit within days, a step that could pile more pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step down.
"I announced more than a month ago that I intend, immediately after the Labor Party primaries, to carry out far-reaching changes," Peretz said on Channel 2 television.
"One of (the changes) that I intend to propose is for the defense portfolio to be returned to (Olmert's) Kadima party and that we receive the finance portfolio," Peretz said.
Asked why he didn't heed some 100,000 Israeli protesters who demanded at a rally on Thursday that he and Olmert quit immediately, Peretz said, "I think everyone realizes, that two weeks here or two weeks there really do not matter."
Peretz denied that Israel had lost the war. "Today we are much more prepared on the northern front, without a doubt," Peretz said, about the border with Lebanon.
"Although Syria has rearranged troops in recent weeks, Israeli intelligence shows that it is not preparing for war, and neither is Israel," Peretz said.
"Peretz had insisted throughout the war that Israel not draw Syria into the fighting," he said.
The defense minister is widely expected to be ousted as Labor's leader in the internal vote later this month.
Several candidates to replace him have said they intend to pull Labor out of Olmert's governing coalition, a move that could hasten a general election that is not due until 2010.
A government-appointed panel said on Monday that Olmert "made up his mind hastily" to launch the war last July, accusing him of "a serious failure in exercising judgment, responsibility and prudence."
The panel also found fault with Peretz, saying he failed to recognize that his military inexperience obliged him to seek expert counsel in pursuing the campaign against Hezbollah.
Olmert has repeatedly said he has no intention of resigning despite the commission's sharp criticism and a call from his own foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, to leave office.
Echoing Olmert, Peretz said in the television interview he wanted to stay on for now to help the government and military fix mistakes highlighted in the inquiry's interim report.
"I have made my decision," Peretz said. "But I think if I decided from one day to the next to get up and flee the Defense Ministry, I would be doing something bad, bad for the security and the state of Israel."