RAMALLAH, West Bank, 29 May 2008 — Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak yesterday demanded that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert quit over graft allegations or face early elections in a move that could put peace talks on hold.
Barak dropped the political bombshell one day after a wealthy US financier testified before a Jerusalem court that he had given Olmert vast amounts of cash to fund his political ambitions and perhaps his lifestyle.
“In the wake of the current situation and considering the challenges Israel faces, including Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, the captured soldiers and the peace process, the prime minister cannot simultaneously lead the government and conduct his personal affairs,” Barak said in a press conference.
“I don’t mind if he suspends himself, takes leave or resigns,” added Barak, himself a former premier.
Jewish-American businessman Morris Talansky told a preliminary hearing at Jerusalem Magistrates Court on Tuesday that he gave Olmert $150,000 over a period of 15 years. The testimony is part of an investigation into Olmert, who is suspected of illegally receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Talansky.
Asked what he would do if Olmert ignores his stance, Barak replied that “the prime minister must act, and the Kadima party must make decisions.”
He added that “the Labor party will not hold a stopwatch in Kadima’s face, but things have to happen as soon as possible... The state deserves stability and, therefore, we must have a government in the Knesset. I am not afraid of elections. The public will decide and we will win.”
The Labor chairman briefed his faction members on his remarks several minutes before the press conference. He told them that he would call on the prime minister to leave office.
Earlier, Barak told Olmert that he could not stay in office, as the two met for about an hour at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem following a National Security Cabinet discussion.
As Olmert’s senior coalition partner, Labor’s departure would leave the premier without a majority with which to rule. “Either Olmert suspends himself or the Labor party must leave the government,” senior Labor legislator Danny Yatom said earlier yesterday.
Israeli Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said, “Kadima must take responsibility and make difficult decisions. I am not ruling out an election campaign. The problem is of a person who I hope manages to prove his innocence and is acquitted. The problem is Kadima’s and Olmert’s.”
Dramatic voices were also heard among members of Kadima. Knesset member Amira Dotan sent a letter to Olmert, calling on him to vacate his office in favor of “an alternative leadership that will advance the state’s affairs.”
Dotan wrote in the letter, “Talansky’s testimony still echoes in my years and requires a public leadership statement. We must serve as an example for values and norms which are what gained us the public’s trust.”
However, Olmert’s strategic adviser, Tal Zilberstein, said that the premier would not quit despite the illicit funding investigation against him, since such a move wound be tantamount to an admission of guilt. “Olmert has made a firm decision to continue serving as prime minister, I say this on the basis of a conversation I had with him a short time ago,” Zilberstein told Israeli Army Radio.
“He has no intention of suspending himself or making any sort of announcement, not at this juncture and not at any stage while he is in the process of proving his innocence.”
Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the daily Haaretz said that Olmert has lost the trust of his party and, more importantly, the public’s trust, in the latest corruption affair under which he is being investigated.
The survey said that 70 percent of those polled said they do not believe Olmert’s version that the money he received from the American businessman went only for his election campaigns. What is even worse, 51 percent of his own party’s voters don’t believe him either.
