Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert fended off a public call to resign from his foreign minister by winning critical support from party loyalists on Wednesday amid a crisis over his handling of the Lebanon war. "The parliamentary bloc stands behind the government and the prime minister," lawmakers from Olmert's Kadima party said in a statement issued after hours of intense debate, declaring him the victor in a showdown with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.The crisis broke on Monday when an official inquiry savaged Olmert's conduct of last year's war with Hezbollah guerrillas. Just before the lawmakers met, Livni had convened a news conference to reveal she had urged Olmert to quit and she wanted his job. "I told the prime minister that I thought to resign was the right thing to do," she told a riveted television audience. But in the parliamentary meeting with members of his centrist party, Olmert, as quoted by a senior official, said: "I am in a personally uncomfortable position, but I will not shirk my responsibility and will fix all the mistakes."
The Kadima bloc's parliamentary leader, Avigdor Yitzhaki, resigned during the meeting in protest when Olmert rejected his calls to step down. The fate of Livni, a 48-year-old rising star and deputy leader of Kadima, now hangs in the balance. "The prime minister enjoyed unprecedented support here," veteran Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said after hours of argument among the 29-strong parliamentary caucus.
Under Kadima's rules, Olmert cannot be ousted. The only course of action is to persuade him to resign or to hold a primary which would take time to organize.