Unless he was attempting to reduce the lightspots on him by pretending to step down?

My guess would be that some more of that corruption iceberg has surfaced, and *someone* has effectively squeezed Olmert’s cojones into resigning.

As for ‘filling the political vacuum’, i think that in light of the absence of someone who’s clearly superior or has a lot of popular support (both concepts being often totally disconnected) I feel the political bargaining will lead to the (s)election of someone that will make everyone equally unhappy, a la European Union treaties

My personal choice would’ve been Livni but I think I’ll put my (depreciating) shekels on Dichter.

so you never know..

שבוע טוב

He wanted to get sympathy and postpone criticism.

He had already promised to resign if indicted, and there were rumours that it was a matter of a month or so before he was to be charged, so he enabled himself to get out of that promise, by making this big show of another one, seemingly accepting the will of the people, etc. but actually nullifying the former promise.

Furthermore, there was an appeal to the Supreme court that was to be decided upon shortly, demanding him to suspend himself on the grounds of being unable to devote himself to matters of state right now, so this proclamation pre-empts that too.

Finally, practically speaking, even if a new chairman for Kadima is chosen on Sept. 17, that person might not be able to establish a government and Olmert could remain as head of a transitory one.