Olmert Braces For Possible Summer Ouster

Ehud Olmert may be forced out of office to avoid dragging the Kadima party down with him, Haaretz reports. Quoting a senior party official, the newspaper says the Israeli Prime Minister may resign this summer as part of the fallout from a government report on the run-up to and conduct of last summer’s war in Lebanon.

The report, a draft of which is out today, is critical of Olmert’s handling of the war and comes down hard on the PM and the Cabinet for failing to question the army's plans. The 34-day conflict was a diplomatic disaster for Israel and failed to achieve its primary military goal of destroying Hezbollah. (More Ehud Olmert stories.)