Ex-prime minister calls for Olmert’s resignation

JERUSALEM – A day after embarrassing testimony about his receipt of cash envelopes from a U.S. businessman, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert came under increased pressure to resign Wednesday when a key coalition partner, Ehud Barak, called on him to step aside or face the collapse of his government.

Barak, the defense minister and former prime minister, said that if Olmert did not relinquish his duties, Barak’s Labor Party would force new elections.

Though Barak did not set a deadline, the threat raises the prospect of a change of leadership that could disrupt Israel’s renewed peace talks with Syria and Washington’s efforts to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian accord before President Bush leaves office.

“It should happen soon, and I mean soon,” Barak said about his demand that Olmert step aside.

The challenge, to which Olmert did not immediately respond, came a day after an American businessman, Morris Talansky, testified that he handed Olmert envelopes stuffed with thousands of dollars and granted him use of his credit card to pay for stays in luxury hotels, airline ticket upgrades and an overseas vacation.

The damaging court testimony, part of an investigation into the suspected illicit transfer of funds to Olmert before he was prime minister, has raised the pressure on him to resign and further undermined public trust in the unpopular Israeli leader.

In a public opinion poll published Wednesday in the Haaretz newspaper, 70 percent of those surveyed did not believe Olmert’s assertion that the cash he received was raised exclusively for campaign purposes. Olmert has denied taking bribes, and he has promised to resign if a decision is made to indict him.