TZIPI LIVNI PLANNING TO TAKE OVER AS PM IF OLMERT LEAVES

This should receive careful attention, as she is, you can be sure, quite an opportunist:

(IsraelNN.com) Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is making preparations for replacing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert if and when the latest bribery scandal forces him to resign, political analysts reported.

"The main scenario discussed yesterday in the political corridors, assuming Olmert does indeed leave or is made to leave, is that the Foreign Minister will replace him, in her capacity as Acting Prime Minister," right-of-center website Makor Rishon wrote Wednesday. While the Kadima party's regulations determine that a new party chairman must be chosen in primaries, Livni may circumvent the regulation by arguing time is pressing and stability is of cardinal importance.

Livni has offered no public backing for the Prime Minister in his time of trouble. According to the report, she is already making "careful and delicate" contact with the Kadima party's Knesset faction members in an attempt to secure their backing.

It should be remembered that last year, when the first Winograd report was released, she did not resign her position in the government, which does discredit her. She may claim to be turning "right-wing", but I wouldn't be so quick to trust her at all. The sooner the government dissolves, the better. No doubt she's had these opportunistic views of hers planned for a while now.