ISRAEL - Apr 22 - Blow For Olmert As Minister Quits.

PM Ehud Olmert, suffer blows on several fronts with the loss of his finance minister, the resignation of an Arab parliamentarian and an upsurge in violence that left nine Palestinians dead and prompted Hamas to vow revenge. The FM Avraham Hirschson, stepped down to fight allegations of embezzlement and fraud when he headed a workers' union in 2003, leaving Olmert to act as finance minister. Israeli markets shrugged off the announcement, which followed months of speculation. A flurry of corruption and sex scandals has claimed a number of top Israeli officials in recent months and another cabinet minister, rightwing Avigdor Lieberman, was questioned by police on Apr 22 over a bank account in Cyprus. But Olmert faces potentially his biggest challenge next week with the release of a report into his government's handling of last summer's war against the Lebanese Hizbullah movement. Many Israelis believe they lost that war and speculation has been rife that Olmert might eventually lose office. Azmi Bishara, an Israeli Arab member of the Knesset or parliament who has often visited Lebanon and Syria, tendered his resignation on Apr 22 at the Israeli embassy in Cairo. Police have opened a criminal investigation into Bishara but are barred by a court from giving details. Bishara did not say when he would return to Israel. "There's no point now in clinging to parliamentary status and immunity in this rightwing, fascist, racist orchestra", he told al-Jazeera TV. The Christian member of the anti-Zionist Balad party, which has three seats in the 120-seat Knesset, has in the past invoked parliamentary immunity to evade prosecution for visiting "enemy states". Tentative peace moves were jeopardised by Apr 21 Israeli military action that killed nine Palestinians, including a 17-year-old girl. Retaliatory rockets fired from Gaza damaged a house in the Israeli town of Sderot. Israel defended the action as necessary against terrorism. The militant group Hamas urged its fighters and others "to use all possible means of resistance and to respond to the massacres".