Olmert's peace plan totters with him
By Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM - For the first time, a former Israeli prime minister will soon be in
the defendant's chair in a criminal court.
The State Prosecution on Sunday filed serious charges in the Jerusalem District
Court against former prime minister Ehud Olmert. He is indicted on a litany of
corruption charges that include accepting bribes, fraud, breach of trust,
falsifying documents and income-tax evasion.
The 61-page indictment concludes a lengthy criminal investigation that, a year
ago, forced Olmert to resign. He remained in office as interim prime minister
until new elections in February brought to
power the ultra-nationalist government of Benjamin Netanyahu in place of
Olmert's centrist coalition.
The charges stem from three main cases that were uncovered in the past few
years as investigators explored evidence that led to a whole series of alleged
misdemeanors. All the cases relate to the period when Olmert served as mayor of
Jerusalem and as a junior government minister, but before he became prime
minister in March 2006.
The most sensational case involves a Jewish fund-raiser in the United States
from whom Olmert allegedly received over US$500,000 between 1997 and 2005, much
of it cash stuffed into envelopes.
Olmert, then Jerusalem mayor and later a cabinet minister, is accused of
concealing the money. He is charged with a major conflict of interest of
abusing his influential position to promote his benefactor's private business
interests in Israel and abroad.
In another case known as the "Rishon Tours double-billing affair", Olmert is
charged with fraudulently billing multiple institutions - state bodies and
charitable organizations - for trips abroad in his capacity as a government
official. This is said to have allowed him to build up a secret credit account
with his travel agency. He is alleged to have used the more than $92,000
amassed in this way to finance private and family travel.
The harsh indictment spells out the charges - "abuse of his position and
status, the scope of the fraud and the systematic manner in which it was
committed over time, the fact that it was the result of an ongoing effort
involving the systematic submission of dozens of false documents, and the fact
that some of the sums of money in question were obtained from the public
coffers, and others from charitable organizations of a public character."
Israelis like to pride themselves on the robustness of their democracy. The
collective infuriation with Olmert is lumped together with anger directed
against two of his former ministers - one of them his finance minister - who,
coincidentally, was due on Tuesday to begin severe prison terms after being
found guilty of various charges of theft, bribery and breach of trust.
"If Olmert is convicted, what these cases all have in common is that their
offences put government above the law," said legal commentator Professor Ze'ev
Segal of Tel Aviv University. "The indictment [against Olmert] is an ethical
document that sounds an alarm over serious government corruption."
Also coincidentally on Tuesday, the trial of former president Moshe Katsav on
charges of rape and sexual harassment was due to get under way. He, too, was
forced out of office prematurely.
All the cases are attributed to the zeal of Israel's Attorney General Menachem
Mazuz, who has become a nightmare for politicians and senior officials. Many
Israelis - for whom politics has come to equal corruption - laud his
unflinching commitment to root out what's now widely perceived as a plague in
their society.
"It can reflect the depth of the corruption and decay of the Israeli political
system. But it can also reflect the fearless attitude of the legal system
toward politicians," wrote political analyst Aluf Benn in Ha'aretz daily. "It
is still too early to tell whether the serial charges have also created a
deterrent."
Olmert has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Even when forced to resign last
autumn, he used his time as interim prime minister to engage in a concerted
effort to conclude a peace deal with the Palestinians. He insisted a deal was
"definitely attainable" if only the Palestinians had accepted what he referred
to as "generous terms" for a final peace.
Those talks crowned Olmert's dramatic political shift from a right-wing
nationalist to an ardent peace advocate who believed in territorial compromise
with the Palestinians - even in Jerusalem. He repeatedly said that defining the
borders of Israel within the context of a two-state solution was essential to
Israel's survival.
But once the allegations of corruption grew louder, eventually forcing his
resignation, his credo on peace with the Palestinians became irrelevant:
Israelis simply stopped relating to him as a serious political force.
In his last interview in June, as Netanyahu was already prime minister, Olmert
went so far as to disclose to Newsweek magazine that, in his talks with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, he had actually offered the slaughtering
of Israel's holiest cow - total and unilateral control of the whole of
Jerusalem. Instead, he proposed the internationalization of the walled Old City
with its sites holy to the three monotheistic religions.
"I am not in power, but my ideas are in power. And, my ideas will prevail,"
Olmert insisted.
For the past two decades, one Israeli prime minister after another has broken
what had been one taboo after another in terms of what was considered
"acceptable" to Israel in order to advance peace.
But, so irrelevant was Olmert that his last statement did not create a storm,
neither in Israel nor in the US.
Now, with a major new peace effort beginning to take shape under the
stewardship of US President Barack Obama, is there yet a chance that Olmert's
revolutionary proposal (in Israeli terms) can be built on?
The Palestinians have already conditioned peace talks with Israel being resumed
from where they were left off by Olmert. But Olmert's successor has not only
shelved the internationalization idea - under Netanyahu, Israel's policy on
Jerusalem has regressed dramatically into a "hands-off what's ours" stance.
It will be an uphill task for Obama to prove that Olmert's predictions about
accommodation in Jerusalem would, in his words, "remain in power". Unlike him.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
