And in news from Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held an emergency meeting of his Cabinet on Wednesday amidst growing calls for him to resign over his handling of the Lebanon war. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has urged Olmert to resign. Earlier today, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said the public has lost all trust in Olmert’s government. Palestinian senior negotiator Saeb Erekat said the political controversy in Israel would likely affect the Palestinians.

Saeb Erekat: “[I] hope that the complexities that we are witnessing in Israel will not have a negative impact on our attempts and the Quartet’s attempts to revive a meaningful peace process. I hope we will not find ourselves in a vacuum and everything that we’re trying to do in terms of Secretary Rice’s efforts to revive a meaningful peace process to open a political horizon will just be undermined.”