Steps down after announcing plan to quit; Peres thanks him for his "service to the people and state."
By HERB KEINONOlmert during speech 224(photo credit: GPO)
Thirty-three months after dramatically filling in for a stroke-stricken Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - facing a number of corruption allegations - formally tendered his resignation to President Shimon Peres on Sunday evening.
Olmert entered and left Beit Hanassi by a side entrance, thereby avoiding the press, and met with Peres for some 30 minutes.
Following the meeting, the president met the media and said this was a "difficult evening" for Olmert, and that he appreciated "the respectful way in which he is handing over his power."
Peres read from a prepared text and thanked Olmert "for his service to the people and the state over the course of many years of public activities."
"The safety of the State of Israel and the welfare of its citizens were central to his actions as prime minister," Peres said, adding that "some of these will remain unknown."
The president said that Israel faced "complicated national, security, economic, and social challenges, requiring constant leadership." Israel was "a strong state and a steadfast democracy, and even the replacement of the prime minister will not harm its strength, its determination to protect its citizens and its commitment to peace."
Olmert's unceremonious resignation appeared to bring to a dizzying end the political career of a man who has been on the public stage for nearly four decades, serving as MK, mayor of Jerusalem and in a number of ministerial posts.
The prime minister, who survived calls for his resignation due to the failures of the Second Lebanon War, was finally brought down by corruption allegations stemming from his relationship with New York businessman Morris Talansky, and double billing charitable organizations for plane tickets in what has come to be known as the Rishon Tours scandal. The police have recommend indictments in both cases, though Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz has yet to decide. Other corruption allegations are also pending.
By submitting his letter of resignation, Olmert set the process of selecting a new prime minister in motion. Even as he was in Beit Hanassi with Peres, Kadima faction members - including Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, Construction and Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim, and Tzahi Hanegbi - were waiting in the foyer for their meeting with Peres to recommend that the president designate the new Kadima chairman, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, to form a government.
If, as expected, Peres does - after consulting with all 13 Knesset factions - choose Livni for that task, she will have 42 days to complete the job, and if she fails the country would likely go to early elections three months later.
In addition to meeting the Kadima faction, Peres also met with Labor, Likud and Shas representatives on Sunday night.
He is set to meet the rest of the factions on Monday, before flying to the US to represent Israel at the UN General Assembly meeting. He is expected to assign Livni the task of forming a government before he goes.
Olmert, who promised the country some two months ago - as the Talansky and Rishon Tours affairs were unfolding in public - that he would resign after the Kadima primary, was true to his word, announcing his intention to do so at Sunday's cabinet meeting.
While there was some speculation about whether the prime minister would go to the president immediately or wait another week until Peres returned from the US, Cabinet Secretary Ovad Yehezkel ended the suspense by announcing in the early afternoon that Olmert would submit his letter of resignation that evening. The reason, Yehezkel said, was because Olmert wanted to honor his commitment given to the country, and to ensure an orderly transfer of power. Livni also reportedly asked Olmert to set the process in motion immediately.
Olmert, in his letter to the president, succinctly wrote that "pursuant to Article 19 of the Basic Law: The Government, and after having notified the government of my intention to do so, I submit to you my resignation as prime minister."
Officials in Olmert's office said that he would, however, remain prime minister until a new government was formed, a process that could - if the country goes to early elections - take up to seven months.
Olmert's resignation an-nouncement to the cabinet came at the beginning of the meeting, after he spoke on a number of other issues, including the global economic crisis, the recent Israeli sporting achievements at the Beijing Paralympics, and the national basketball team's improbable 37-point victory over the Czech Republic that assured it a place in next year's EuroBasket tournament.
"Whoever saw what happened last night could not but be amazed," Olmert - an avid sports fan - said in the meeting, to the laughter of the ministers who were waiting to hear his dramatic resignation announcement. The prime minister spent a good four minutes discussing the game and the way Israel managed to make it into next year's tournament.
Olmert then notified the government of his intention to resign.
"I have decided to resign as prime minister of Israel," he announced. "This was not an easy decision, or a simple one. This was a difficult decision with serious misgivings, but I think I am acting in an appropriate manner, as I have promised the people of Israel.
"I think that this government has done good things - some that we are able to speak about, and others that we are not," he continued. "[These acts] will be written in the pages of history, and will be a source of pride to all those who participated in them.
"I hope that Tzipi Livni forms a government as quickly as possible," he said. "I will help her and stand by her during the process. People like me and a few others, like [Defense Minister Ehud] Barak know how difficult it is to establish and lead a government."
Olmert then turned and shook Livni's hand. The new Kadima leader, who was sitting next to Olmert, made no comment, and the cabinet meeting turned to other business.
It did so, however, without the presence of Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, who lost to Livni by 431 votes in the Kadima primary last week and has since announced that he was taking a "time out" from politics. He has not, however, formally resigned his ministerial position.
Acting Knesset Speaker MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) submitted a letter to Olmert earlier Sunday in which he called on him to postpone his resignation.
Schneller will be the acting president while Peres is New York, as well as acting Knesset speaker while Dalia Itzik is in the US.
In his letter, Schneller requested of Olmert that, following an agreement that had been reached by all Knesset groups (apart for one whose name he refused to give), he postpone his resignation until Peres's return.
"The Knesset cannot dismiss the law it wrote allowing MKs and the president seven days of consultation before he [the president] chooses who would be able to establish a government successfully," Schneller told The Jerusalem Post.
He added that postponing Olmert's resignation would allow the president and the representatives of the parties to better prepare a transition.
Shelly Paz contributed to this report.
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