A day after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced he would depart political life, top rival Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel should get rid of its current governing coalition and go straight to early elections.Polls show the Likud Party's Netanyahu -- a former prime minister who takes a hard line on territorial concessions to the Arabs -- would most likely win such a race if it were held today. Olmert threw Israel's political system into turmoil on Wednesday by abruptly announcing he would step down after his Kadima Party's leadership race in September, called because of a series of corruption allegations against him.
"This is a government that has come to the end of its road," Netanyahu told Israel Radio on Thursday. "It doesn't make any difference who heads Kadima, they are all part to a string of failures by this government."