Olmert Bows Out: It’s About Time
In the end, it was fear rather than shame that caused Ehud Olmert to announce his resignation. In a speech that was broadcast live at the top of yesterday’s evening news hour, the Israeli prime minister announced that he would not be a candidate in the September 17 internal elections for Kadima, the party he now leads. He added that he would resign after the new party leader was chosen.
Olmert has been under criminal investigation for graft and corruption since the beginning of May. Israel’s political analysts are pretty much unanimous in assuming that Olmert finally decided to resign when he realized that the police might very well have sufficient evidence to send him to jail, rather than merely run him out of office. Previously, Olmert had said that he would resign if he were indicted on criminal charges.
Olmert is under investigation for allegedly accepting around $150,000 in cash payments delivered in envelopes by Long Island businessman Morris (Moshe) Talansky, over a period of more than a decade. Talansky claims to have believed the money was meant for campaign funding. The police claim the money was never used for political campaigns; so far, there have been allegations that Olmert used the money for personal expenses or that Talansky was in fact paying a bribe for political connections to advance his business interests.
The investigation, which was leaked in almost its entirety to the Israeli media, further revealed that Olmert may have accepted several hundred thousand dollars more from Talansky, via his former law partner Uri Messer. In one of many leaked interrogation transcripts, Messer confirmed that he kept the cash Olmert had received from Talansky in his office safe.
Last week Talansky completed several grueling days of testimony under the sharp tongue of Eli Zohar, who heads Olmert’s very expensive legal team; Zohar, who is one of the most famous attorneys in Israel — which makes one wonder who is paying for all this — managed to tarnish Talansky’s credibility significantly. The wealthy septuagenarian repeatedly said he could not remember various incidents; he also pleaded exhaustion on several occasions during the testimony. (Olmert also hired top PR advisor Amir Dan — who, in turn, hired the services of top advertising firm McCann Erickson’s Tel Aviv offices.)
More recently, the police leaked documents that appeared to show Olmert had, since 1991, double-and-triple billed various public bodies for work-related trips abroad. Amongst the organizations named in the “Olmertours” investigation are Friends of the IDF and an organization for mentally disabled children. The police claim that Olmert used the surplus funds, acquired via fictitious invoices, to pay for the flights of his wife and grown children.
During last night’s resignation speech, as the cameras zoomed in for a close-up of Olmert’s red-rimmed, tear-filled eyes, the soon-to-be ex prime minister extolled his accomplishments. He also praised Israel’s democratic institutions, which did not differentiate between an ordinary citizen and the prime minister. In media follow up, Olmert’s advisors tried to make him look like Tony Blair. For most Israelis, however, the prime minister seems more like another Tony — Tony Soprano.
I’m thinking Bibi or Ehud Barak are the best of the worst. You’re quite right – they all suck, but those two might suck less.
Which is probably the only way to go at this point.
It’s past time. But Bibi’s economic policies are bad for Israel.
I frankly don’t know who would make a better PM right now.
I believe the quote is David Grossman’s, not Meir Shalev’s.
Aviv: nope, it’s Meir Shalev’s. I was there; but even if I hadn’t been, I’d have – this link.
Good riddance. Israel needs a PM with the moral fortitude and integrity to denounce the evil of islam and the evil of socialism and PC’ness wich is destroying her. If I were Israel I would get BB Netanyahu in there.
“Netanyahu, … was widely considered one of the worst prime ministers in Israel’s history … Unfortunately his replacement, … Barak, managed to trump Bibi in the disastrous leadership department.”
Maybe my memory fails me, but I recall that Bibi was defeated because popular opinion wanted to leave Southern Lebanon and embrace Oslo. Barak pulled out of Southern Lebanon and tried to surrender to Araft & Co. He failed because, not because of his was inadequacies, but because Bibi was right about the PLO gang.
The real failure of leadership came in 2006 with the disastrous Hezbollah fiasco, which revealed the Army to be poorly prepared, the Defense ministry to have planned poorly, and Olmert and his cabinet to be ninnies.
At this point I think that Bibi is the choice. He is the one who most clearly understood the PLO.
“Bibi’s economic policies are bad for Israel.”
Huh??? Bibi’s the best thing that ever happened to Israel’s economy.
Wow, I thought Olmert was resigning because he knew he was too gutless to save Isreal from Iranian nukes if Obama got elected. I focused so much on the presidential election, I wasn’t paying attention.
And if you are reading this from Iran go down in the cellar and plug your ears.
Is it too unrealistic for me to hope that Yisrael Beytenu could get the largest concensus in the next Knesset election?
“Bibi’s economic policies are bad for Israel”
Not true. Netanyahu’s free-market policies are a necesary, if sometime painful medicine. Socialism has been disproved the world over, but here in Israel, there is no single political party that really promotes the free market. The Likud is still too “populist “–meaning too many of their politicians are addicted to cronyism. Don’t expect a party called “Labor” to take a strong free-market stance, and Kadima is just the bastard offspring of cronyism and residual socialist bullshit.
Netanyahu is the ONLY major Israeli politician who is committed to the free market. This alone is worth a lot. The great Revisionist leader and thinker Zev Jabotinsky was pro-individualist and anti-big government back in the days when European and American Jews still believed socialism was the equivalent of the messiah. Knesset member Abba Achimeir recognized way back then that socialism was no better than Communism as far as crippling initiative and destroying the basis of individual freedom.
Most Israeli politicians give lip service to the free market, but go with socialist policies in a crunch to buy votes and influence. Menachem Begin invited economist Milton Friedman to Israel during his government, and then proceeded to ignore all Friedman’s advice.
Israel must break free of the chains of socialism and government tyranny. Netanyahu now!
Olmert should have fallen on his sword after the Lebanon War like the other two of the Three Stooges that ran that debacle, especially for launching a ground attack too late that cost too many lives of our soldiers and then aborting without any gain.
I normally vote Likud but didn’t last time because Bibi hit the poor hard with his economic policies long after it was necessary because the economy had made a recovery. Many people felt the same way.
But he wasn’t bad last time as PM, just dumb in his relations with other leaders in his party, especially insulting David Levy, which caused him to switch sides and help get Barak elected. He was also caught between a rock and a hard place. The majority wanted Oslo stopped but because of the emotion triggered by the assassination of Rabin plus the heavy-handed pressure applied by Clinton, he had to go along, starting by giving away Hebron which caused Benny Begin to quit. But after the wave of terror under Peres, he brought violence to a very low level, which made it appear that Arafat really wanted peace and only Bibi stood in the way. Actually the violence was controlled because Arafat didn’t like getting his ass kicked by Bibi. One Barak got in there, the lid come off with the biggest wave of terror yet.
Barak made 30 specific promises, including tens of thousands of jobs, a promise the Russians swallowed. He kept only one, running out of Lebanon which set up the war six years later. He seems to have matured too, but Bibi will take it if the poor will give him a second chance. The poor were always the base of the Likud. He was profusely apologetic all during the last election.
BiBI is the one. The problem there is the Israeli Left hates him worse then the Socialists here in the USA hate PRESIDENT Bush and for the same basice reason. Both men prove conclusively that the world view of the socialists/left wingers is from another planet and has no relationship with the world we live in.
So they react in the standard manner when ‘the truth turns out to be lies and all the joy within you dies’. That is to turn on whoever destroyed their dreams by exposing them to the facts.
Welcome to the real world. What matters is that Bibi and Big Mac will make a good team. A fighter jock and a former commando. Things are looking up. Unless, of course, you are a terrorist or a terrorist supporter.
Take note of who acts against this dynamic duo. They are the enemy. By their deeds you will know them.
“A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
German philosopher (1844 – 1900)
I really don’t get individuals who keep on thinking Netanyahu was a monster with the his economic policies. I can’t really be civil, but folks like that are the same idiots that voted in Olmert – they buckled and fell for the media brainwashing/pro-Kadima propaganda. It’s the same way they are being cheerleaders for Livni (who is part of the guilty pack with the Lebanon II mess) and Obama in US. People, try to read and listen to what the so called leaders are saying, take note of where they failed if they have a background.
If Netanyahu didn’t do what he did at the time, the country would have collapsed economically. Those with short term memory don’t want to recall the complete lack of tourism during the days of multiple suicide bombings to huge slump in the economy. Please tell me how the country survived then? Also, it can be said the current economic success resulted from his “evil” policies.
The poor hurt? Are you talking about the extorting ultra-orthodox parties who were milking the state for more funds for ever 5th child, while not educating and preparing them in schools for the 21st century. Torah does not come before bread. Or even better, the folks you see whining on TV about not having enough money while they are smoking cigs and have the flashiest mobile phone? The ones who really are hurting, are always hurt, but you don’t ever hear them. I knew of someone who was so poor that they did their schoolwork in candle light, while their elderly neighbor, who didn’t have much himself, helped pay for their heating. And this was not under the Netanyahu regime (PM or Finance Minister).
Netanyahu is certainly not the greatest individual. Quite frankly, as someone already mentioned, all our politicians suck. But to paste on someone the position of the devil incarnate because they regurgitate the agenda pushing media here is simply a crock. There is a serious need to revise many aspects of government here which won’t happen, but in the near future at least I hope, we will be able to clean the wound left by the Kadima regime.
When will Israel ever reform its electoral system…that is how you will lose bums like Olmert,and not have to regurgitate the same people like Barak and Bibi over and over again!
I don’t think that I have the privileges to say Bibi is good or bad and the same for Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni and others. The rules of the game are clear. This is the Middle East,now, wit all his obvious dangers. There is not room for politics as usual. Each of the possible PM has his good sides and bad sides. For the near future of Israel we need a blend of all their good sides, minimizing what in their personality could harm Israel.
I don’t think that I have the privileges to say Bibi is good or bad and the same for Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni and others. The rules of the game are clear. This is the Middle East,now, with all his obvious dangers. There is not room for politics as usual. Each of the possible PM has his good sides and bad sides. For the near future of Israel we need a blend of all their good sides, minimizing what in their personality could harm Israel.
Isn’t anyone upset that all apparently all the testimony gathered by the Israeli police was leaked? This shows the police department itself is completely corrupt.
Every Israeli is aware that Olmert is the best Prime Minister that money can buy. And believe me when I say that it is not easy to win this highly-coveted title. The competition in Israel is extremely tight. Almost every politician in Israel, with only the rarest of exceptions, is corrupt. The religious parties whom you would expect to be the most honest and upright are among the most corrupt and dishonest. The Judiciary is also corrupt. The Media is aslo corrupt. The Military is also corrupt. Academia is also corrupt. Yet the country seems paralysed and unable to rid itself of this rampant corruption. Just imagine what this Nation could accomplish if truth, honesty, integrity, patriotism and brotherly love were the rule rather than the exception.
Until Israel finally adopts a clear written Constitution and abolishes proportional representation she will always be in this muddle of corruption and incompetence on a political level. What I am proposing does not eliminate corruption or incompetence (Lord knows we have enough here in the US) but having the system we have puts limits on both. It makes possible the occasional sea change that keeps the country mostly on an even keel and overall reasonably managed (within the possible of a democratic system).
If Bibi actually learned something in the last few years, like learning to keep his mouth shut and be a bit less arrogant and a bit more realistic and ruthless he could be a formidable and excellent PM.
America has about 538 Congress critters. Turn the FBI loose on them and at least 530 will end up doing time. If ALL the people that are stealing money from taxpayers were arrested, Washington D.C. would be a ghost town.
As far as running the country goes, Congress matters no more then the Administration does.
The bureaucrats run America. If they don’t like a program or policy, they just red-tape it until the next batch of crooked politicians shows up.
“The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.”
Eugene McCarthy, Time magazine, Feb. 12, 1979
US politician (1916 – 2005)
21st Century America has an efficient Bureaucracy, so we will find out if Eugene was correct. So far his record is perfect, in that he was wrong about everything.
Interesting discussion, I guess there is not right and wrong here.