JERUSALEM — Israel stepped back from the brink of political turmoil Wednesday after the two main parties in the ruling coalition hammered out a last-minute compromise to prevent the passage of a bill calling an election.
This gives Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a few more months to pursue peace talks with the Palestinians and to try to win release of three captured soldiers. But the price was agreeing to a primary election in September that is likely to end his tenure.
Olmert’s main coalition partner, Labor, was poised Wednesday to vote in favor of a bill to dissolve the parliament and call elections. An election campaign would put peace efforts far onto the back burner.
Instead, Olmert agreed to a Labor demand for primaries in his Kadima Party by Sept. 25 in exchange for Labor’s dropping its support of the election bill.
