[News and Analysis] Beleaguered Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, stung by the public testimony of an American witness that over the years he gave him cash-filled envelopes amounting to at least $150,000 and underwrote Olmert’s lavish lifestyle, said on Thursday that he would not step down. Olmert also began a one-on-one campaign lobbying legislators in his party to give him the benefit of the doubt and time to clear his name. That, however, is not an insignificant request given the fact that the current scandal is the fifth criminal investigation of Olmert since he took office two years ago. One newspaper has dubbed the prime minister a "serial suspect." Olmert has not yet had the opportunity to confront the witness and mount a legal defense, and prosecutors have not yet determined what charges, if any, will be filed against Olmert. Defense minister and former prime minister Ehud Barak, the leader of the Labor party, Olmert’s largest coalition partner, held a news conference on Wednesday at which he called for Olmert to step aside and "detach himself from the day-to-day leadership of the country." Observers, though, see little effect from the Barak statement and some see it more as an exercise in restoring his own flagging image with those who are angry that he reneged on his vow not to remain in the Olmert government beyond the final publication of the report on the conduct of the 2006 war against Hizbullah. Analysts at The Media Line also point out that Barak would no doubt prefer that Olmert be pushed to an election earlier than scheduled rather than an immediate resignation because Labor is not ready to run head-to-head against Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud.