World
Leader Falls
Olmert looking at a notorious rather than a glorious legacy.
N
Jerusalem/JTA
served as health minister and labor
and social welfare minister in different
governments, started a four-year prison
term the same day for taking bribes.
Olmert was catapulted into the pre-
miership by Ariel Sharon's debilitating
stroke, but after a decisive election victo-
ry in April 2006, the longtime Jerusalem
mayor appeared poised to lead Israel into
a new era of peace and security — even
if it had to be accomplished through uni-
lateral withdrawals in the West Bank.
unpopular advanced his party's fortunes.
Whatever price Olmert paid in personal
popularity for his attack-dog reputation,
the other side always emerged a little
more wounded. Peres lost the elections
to Benjamin Netanyahu, and Olmert
wrested City Hall from Kollek.
In his 10 years as mayor, Olmert at
times seemed more focused with making
it on the national stage. Critics said his
dogged plans for a light rail system were
a white elephant aimed at enhancing his
reputation as a builder. Yet six years after
Olmert left City Hall, the plan is going
ahead.
All the while, Olmert was never far
from scandal. He faced allegations that
he wiretapped Labor Party headquarters
in the 1988 elections. Detractors charged
that he froze out donors to Jerusalem
projects who had not backed his election.
Yet Olmert always survived. And once
he became prime minister — with
Kadima, the centrist party founded by
Sharon — Olmert was charged with
hopes of finally forging a deal with the
Palestinians.
But the persistence of the investiga-
of unusual for a head of state,
Ehud Olmert hankered for a
legacy, and the contours of an
Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement may
yet bear his mark.
But another first attached to Olmert
may be one both he and his nation prob-
ably could do
without: the first
Israeli prime
minister to spend
fl years fighting
Looking Back
charges of cor-
Earlier in his career, Olmert was better
ruption and then
known as a dealmaker. Never popular with
spend his golden
his party's rank and file, he had one-on-
years behind bars. one relationships with the funders, movers
Israel's attorney and shakers who could seal the coalitions
general in late
that kept his former party, Likud, in power.
Ehud Olmert
August indicted
Olmert was sharp-elbowed and
Olmert on three
acerbic. He questioned the Judaism of
charges that could land him in jail.
Shimon Peres when Peres was fighting to
Olmert was charged with defrauding
keep his job as prime minister in 1996.
the government and overseas Jewish
In the 1993 Jerusalem municipal elec-
groups for about $90,000 by double- and tions, Olmert mocked the age of his rival,
sometimes triple-billing travel charges;
legendary Mayor Teddy Kollek.
with accepting up to $600,000 in bribes
Yet the very qualities that made him
from a New York businessman, Morris
<
Talansky; and for impropriety in main- 't-
taining a relationship with a business
partner while he was minister of trade )
and industry.
All of the charges relate to allegations
predating his 2006-2009 term as prime
I=
minister.
Olmert's lawyers say they will vigor-
ously contest the charges, noting that the
former Israeli leader already had refused
a pre-indictment hearing that might have
resulted in some sort of a plea deal.
"We have no doubt that when it gets to
court we will have a real opportunity to
mount a defense, which we haven't had
until now:' said Olmert spokesman Amir
Dan. "Unlike the complaints that led to
the resignation of the prime minister, the
court can look at things objectively. And
Olmert intends to defend his innocence
If convicted, the 64-year-old Olmert
could spend a long time in prison. He
might find some familiar faces there:
Abraham Hirchson, who served as
finance minister under Olmert, entered
Morris Talansky of New York, shown going into a Jerusalem court on June 28, is at
prison last month for a conviction on
the center of bribery allegations that led to the indictment of former Israeli Prime
embezzlement and fraud. And Shlomo
Minister Ehud Olmert.
Benizri, a Shas Party member who
a
O
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0.
50
September 17 2009
tions against him, along with his per-
ceived failures in Israel's 2006 war with
Hezbollah in Lebanon, sapped Olmert's
popularity early on and impaired his
ability to govern.
During his term, police investigators
pursued allegations that Olmert changed
the terms of a contract to purchase
shares of Bank Leumi in order to help a
friend, that he purchased an apartment
on Jerusalem's Cremieux Street at a dis-
count in exchange for favors, and that he
accepted bribes in exchange for assist-
ing a Netanya hospital — in addition to
the investigations that resulted in last
month's indictments.
Dogged by police probes, Olmert
announced his resignation in the sum-
mer of 2008. He stayed on as acting
prime minister for longer than many had
foreseen. His successor as Kadima leader,
Tzipi Livni, was unable to form a new
government, forcing Israel to have gen-
eral elections in February. While Olmert
was a lame duck, the country found itself
in another war, against llamas in Gaza in
January of this year.
Olmert finally stepped down on March
31, when Netanyahu's coalition govern-
ment was sworn in.
While the Bank Leumi, Cremieux
Street and Netanya hospital investiga-
tions were closed this summer without
indictments, Olmert was unable to shake
the other three cases
Alexander Bligh, chairman of the polit-
ical science department at the College of
Judea and Samaria, and currently a visit-
ing professor at the University of Notre
Dame, does not foresee Olmert's indict-
ment influencing Israel's current political
scene.
"Mr. Olmert has been out of politics;
he's a private citizen:' Bligh said.
Nor does Bligh think the indictments
will weaken public confidence in Israel's
government.
"This is not something that anyone in
a democratic country would like to see,
that one of its leaders is standing trial on
corruption charges:' Bligh said.
However, the fact that an individual as
high ranking as a former prime minister
is not infallible, he stressed, is "testimony
to the strength of Israel's democracy." f l