Olmert in spotlight as polls loom
The Knesset this week chose January 22 as the date for Israel’s general election, and as the country gears up for campaigning all eyes are on one man: Ehud Olmert.
As things currently stand, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to return to office with a right-wing coalition. No current Knesset member can seriously compete with him.
However, polling seems to suggest that Olmert, who was prime minister until 2009 when he left office under a cloud of suspected corruption, is the one man who could change the course of the election. A survey for The Jerusalem Post suggested that if he made alliances with several other prominent centrists he could win the ballot and form the next government.
Olmert has not announced his candidacy and it is unclear whether, if he does, he will rejoin Kadima or start a new party, though he has hinted that he is planning a return to politics. However, a question hangs over whether a comeback for Olmert is possible.
In July, Olmert was cleared of the main corruption allegations that saw him abruptly leave office. But the cloud is still around him, however – on Tuesday the State Attorney’s Office announced that it is appealing the acquittals, meaning that the case against him will be heard once again.
Even without the appeal, the prospect of an Olmert candidacy is controversial. Despite being acquitted of the main charges, he was found guilty of breach of trust for steering clients of a close associate towards contracts and job appointments during his stint as minister of industry, trade and labour from 2003 to 2005. Nevertheless, the court did not deem this “moral turpitude”, which would have barred him from running for public office.
In view of this, some politicians are determined to pull the rug out from under Olmert. Tzipi Hotovely of Likud has asked the central elections commission to disqualify Olmert for “moral turpitude”, even though the court did not demand this course of action.
She asked rhetorically in an interview with The AJN: “What state would immediately return a convicted offender to the scene of his crime, just to see whether he repeats it?”
Hotovely continued: “With over seven million good law-abiding citizens, the premise that Olmert, a public servant convicted of corruption, can still run for office is a cynical use of the Israeli public’s trust.
“Israel’s central elections committee cannot allow the fox to return to guarding the hen house, especially after the damage he wrought on Israel and its political
system.”
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel is also opposing an Olmert comeback. Vice-chairman Michael Partem told The AJN, referring to Olmert’s breach of trust conviction: “People who are guilty of corruption should not be in public office.”
NATHAN JEFFAY
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