PM, Livni clash over Kadima members

The Kadima Council is to meet today amid growing concern over the possibility of early elections following the release next month of the Winograd Committee's interim report on last summer's Lebanon war.

Party activists are anxiously awaiting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's speech to the Petah Tikva gathering, which was planned before the announcement Tuesday that personal conclusions about top leaders would be included in the Winograd report.

Olmert plans to submit to the council the proposal of Housing Minister Meir Sheetrit to extend the party's membership drive to December, while leaving the party members' "trial period" at 25 months long. This cooperation is seen as an attempt to block Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's proposal to cancel the trial period.

Senior party members said Olmert understands the need to stabilize his position in Kadima and surround himself with as many senior supporters as possible.

Olmert's associates, including MK Tzachi Hanegbi, believe the prime minister will brave the Winograd report and restabilize the political system. On the other hand, some party officials have begun examining the party's charter in advance of the possibility that Olmert will resign.

While the charter does not allow for the removal of a sitting chairman, it does state that should the party chairman resign, the party's Knesset faction would determine an acting chairman with the approval of the Kadima Council. The acting chairman will lead the party for two months, until the primaries, in which the acting chairman cannot run.

According to the officials, in such an event the party must field an alternate candidate for prime minister. Both Foreign Minister Livni and Vice Premier Shimon Peres have been mentioned as candidates who could see the party through the crisis, prevent a struggle for succession, and govern until the elections. However, Sheetrit also intends to contend for Kadima's leadership.

Olmert's advisers made numerous telephone calls to Kadima Council members yesterday, urging them to attend the gathering to display party unity and support the prime minister.

Coalition chairman Avigdor Yitzhaki, who has been trying to calm the tension in Kadima in the last few days, said a drain of Kadima MKs to Likud is not on the agenda.

"This is not at all feasible. Everyone in Kadima knows the party's power is its 29 Knesset seats and their staying together," he said.

Labor leadership candidate MK Ami Ayalon said behind closed doors recently that if elected party leader he would act to enlist the 61 MKs required for a constructive no confidence vote. This would enable him to form a cabinet in the incumbent Knesset should Prime Minister Olmert resign.

Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to pull off a similar move.

Ayalon said Labor commands 19 Knesset seats compared to Likud's 13 and therefore has more options of mustering support from MKs for this move.

Ayalon is expected to base his leadership campaign on this plan, underscoring his advantage over his rival Ehud Barak, who is not an MK and whose campaign is based on his wish to serve as defense minister in Olmert's cabinet.

Ayalon's associates said Labor leader and MK Ayalon could also function as opposition chairman if Labor saw fit to quit the cabinet, unlike Barak whose only wish was to serve as Olmert's defense minister.

Barak, meanwhile, is emphasizing his leadership experience compared to Ayalon.

"I won't let the Likud embark on another dirty trick which will end in complete failure," MK Silvan Shalom said yesterday, commenting on reports that Netanyahu was acting to muster 61 MKs to set up a cabinet headed by himself.

Netanyahu said last week that Kadima MKs were talking to Likud MKs about returning to Likud.

"The Likud must push for early elections, that's what the public wants, not be dragged into another political trick of political wheeling and dealing and buying people," Shalom said.