Israeli Hardliner Ditches Olmert

What's that old adage: Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer? It's a saying that Israeli Prime Ministe Ehud Olmert took to heart. He brought ultra right-winger Avigdor Liberman into his coalition by enticing him with a shining new, and quite useless title: Deputy Premier and Minister for Strategic Affairs.

Lieberman is nothing if not canny. He's a onetime nightclub bouncer whose political views are as unyielding as his large fists. And, he has a wolfish sense of opportunity, which makes him such a clever and dangerous politician. Sniffing the wind, he could tell that Olmert is looking vulnerable; the Winograd Report, investigating the 2006 Lebanon War, is due out later this month, and it will probably dump some of the blame for the fiasco on the prime minister.

This was one enemy of Olmert who no longer wanted to be close, no matter how fancy the titles were. On Wednesday, Liberman announced that he was pulling his Yisrael Beitenu party out of the government. Ostensibly, it was because he opposes Olmert's peace talks with the Palestinians. "Negotiations on the basis of land for peace are a critical mistake... and will destroy us," he told a news conference. “It is clear to everyone that these talks will lead to nothing.”

Even without the 12 parliamentary seats of Lieberman's party, Olmert can still hold his coalition together. But others, such as the religious Shas party, and perhaps Labor, may pull out if Olmert fares badly in the Winograd report. For Lieberman, it was time to step away from Olmert and join the premier's other atttackers.

---by Tim McGirk/ Jerusalem