Bribe Scandal
Calls for Israel's president to step down
are coming from all quarters.
ERIC SILVER
Israel Correspondent
Israeli to have held all four top gov-
ernment posts — prime minister, for-
eign, defense and finance — makes no
secret that he is available.
As for the ailing 75-year-old
incumbent, he has "welcomed" the
chance to clear his name and says he is
turning over all relevant papers. But
an array of commentators already
demand that he step down.
The clamor has been amplified by
resentment — not only on the right
— at the way Weizman has begun
Jerusalem
himon Peres, the most experi-
enced Israeli politician still in
harness, was not on Ehud
Barak's 25-man team negoti-
ating peace with Syria in West
Virginia this week. But the 76-year-
old economic cooperation minister
may have moved within striking dis-
tance of the last public position he still
craves: the presidency.
That's-because the prospects of ,..
President Ezer Weizman complet- i
ing his second term diminished
significantly this week. It comes
after he confirmed a report by
investigative journalist Yoav
Yitzhak that he received nearly
$500,000 from French Jewish
tycoon Edouard Seroussi while
serving as a legislator and minis-
ter in the 1980s.
The gift was never declared,
either to the Knesset or to the tax
man. A decade ago, with
Weizman's blessing, Seroussi was
behind an abortive attempt to
launch a second English-language
daily to compete with the
Jerusalem Post.
Government lawyers have
opened an investigation.
Israel President Ezer Weizman
Weizman says he did nothing
illegal, since his friend had no
business interests in Israel and the
campaigning for a Golan withdrawal
money had been paid into a trust,
as part of a peace package with
administered by Weizman's attorney
Damascus. The president announced
(from whose office the president's file
that were Israelis not to vote "yes" in
appears to have been stolen).
the promised vote, he would resign.
But it is alleged that thousands of
More than 60 percent of the public
dollars were transferred piecemeal to
polled by Gallup condemned it as
the private accounts of Weizman, his
inappropriate intervention by a
wife and daughter even after he
national figurehead who is supposedly
became president in 1993. In effect,
above the political fray.
Seroussi seems to have bankrolled the
So far, fellow politicians are more
old air force pilot's political career.
reticent than the media, a group that
Justice Minister Yossi Beilin has
doesn't want to be accused of gunning
warned against rushing to judgment.
for right-wingers suspected of bribe-
Nonetheless, the rumor mill churns.
taking — Shas' Aryeh Deri and the
Prime Minister Barak is reported to
Likud's Binyamin Netanyahu — while
have promised Peres his support.
ignoring establishment peaceniks like
Ra'anan Cohen, Labor's secretary-gen-
Weizman.
eral, has confirmed that the former
In an editorial headlined "The pres-
leader is the party's choice to succeed
ident must resign," the liberal daily
Weizman if needed. Peres, the only
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