News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Defense Minster Ehud Barak, who also is chairman of the Labor party but not a Knesset Member, is assuming Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be forced out of office but is not sure when to topple the government, according to aides quoted by Reuters News Agency. Publicly, Defense Minister Barak says business is as usual and that the Prime Minister is innocent until proven guilty.

"Barak has little doubt that Olmert is on his way out, but the question is: Elections now, or later?" a source told Reuters. He added that the Labor leader has knowledge of details of the current criminal investigation against the Prime Minister and that the case is serious enough that he will be forced to quit.

If Barak pulls Labor out of the government and forces new elections, Likud leader MK Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu is likely to lead his party to a victory with a nationalist and religious coalition, leaving Labor out of the government. If Labor remains, Foreign Minster Tzipi Livni would automatically become Prime Minister Olmert's temporary replacement. If Labor comes up with a deal in which it would rotate leadership with her, Barak cannot serve as Prime Minister so long as he is not an MK.