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Last update - 17:42 06/12/2008
Infrastructure Min.: Demanding Olmert's resignation was a mistake
By Haaretz Service
Tags: Olmert, Labor, elections 

The Labor Party made a mistake when it called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign after he had already announced that he was planning to step down if an indictment was filed against him in any of the multiple corruption investigations against him, Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) said Saturday.

Speaking at an event in Ramat Gan, Eliezer said "the Labor Party made two pivotal mistakes recently. The first one was staying in the government after the publication of the Winograd report, for which I too am to blame," referring to the report compiled by the Winograd commission on the failures of the government and the military during the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

"The second mistake was the demand that Olmert resign, even though he had already announced that he would step down if an indictment was filed against him. This was not a move that I supported. We should have wished him that his innocence will be proven, and nothing more. The public loves warmth and compassion. As we say, you don't shoot a man that's been shot," Ben-Eliezer went on to say.
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The minister added that he was not disappointed at having slipped to the eighth place on the party Knesset list following the party primary election on Thursday, and rallied behind party chairman Defense Minister Ehud Barak, saying "Barak has become the national punching bag in a cruel manner that eliminates forethought. As a citizen of this state I am not sorry that I brought him back into politics. He succeeded in bringing the Israel Defense Forces and the defense establishment back into shape, and giving Israel its power of deterrence back. Barak didn't know how to sell himself, and it is no secret that he is not the best politician. He is not a nice person, as he admits in his campaign ads, but you can't take away his accomplishments."

"I certainly don't trust Bibi," Ben-Eliezer continued, referring to the frontrunner for the premiership Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu. "I know him from the past and I know how he reacts to pressure. Everyone seems to have forgotten what happened to the pension funds, how Bibi ran things when he was finance minister. I hope that the memory of the public isn't that short."

"The Labor Party will not hesitate to sit in the opposition," he announced. We will only join a coalition with parties that care about defense and social security, and that is certainly not the Likud party. If Labor doesn't receive the full support of the public, it should be in the opposition. In any case a rightist government won't last more than two years," Ben Eliezer went on to say.

He also addressed the recent events in the West Bank city of Hebron, where the forcible evacuation of settlers from a house whose ownership has been disputed has sparked clashes across the West Bank, saying "a handful of outlaws know that their actions will boomerang into the murder of Jews. We must be forceful and put them in prison for 15 years, if we care about the law. A group like that can create another Yigal Amir. They don't believe in God, though they speak in the name of God."


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  1.   This is plainly ridiculous...! 18:17  |  Esther 06/12/08
  2.   this isnt what Labour was saying after Wnograd 19:04  |  zionist forever 06/12/08
  3.   I sure wish 19:20  |  rm 06/12/08
  4.   Indeed Esther. Ridiculous and un-commonsensically. 19:22  |  S 06/12/08
  5.   Mistake...because Labor will do so poorly in elections 19:38  |  Moshe 06/12/08
  6.   At least he`s sized up the Hebron rioters correctly 20:40  |  Nathaniel 06/12/08
  7.   Shtuyot 21:42  |  Colin 06/12/08
  8.   Compassion for someone facing corruption 21:52  |  ChanahS 06/12/08
  9.   olmert and the word "resignation" 02:16  |  Arie 07/12/08
  10.   Not insisting on Olmert`s removal was the mistake. 08:00  |  howiej 07/12/08
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