Last Gasp For Olmert's Political Career?

merrie

5-9-2008 8:44 PM

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color:#e5e5e5;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/0e02caa3-6588-403d-a92b-4d6293a3e4d0/FFE64334-68B9-4024-8EE2-E2EAECA2683F/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/09/mideast/israel.php" href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/09/mideast/israel.php" style="font-size: 11px;">www.iht.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/09/mideast/israel.php"><P>Shalom Yerushalmi, a commentator for the newspaper Maariv, wrote Friday that while the prime minister was asking to be believed, "if the public could respond collectively it would, of course, ask: 'Why? For how many years can we hear about your escapades with the police and go on believing you?' "</p> <P>Numerous analysts argued that Israel's intense security challenges could not effectively be met by a leader benefiting from such low public confidence. Peace negotiations with the Palestinians, a process that President George W. Bush is hoping to bolster by coming here next week, and moves toward Syria require hard decisions, especially in the wake of the violent Hezbollah takeover of parts of Beirut on Friday.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/09/mideast/israel.php">But this inquiry is widely viewed as the most serious, involving allegations that hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes were passed to him by a New York businessman, Morris Talansky, over the course of a decade.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/FFE64334-68B9-4024-8EE2-E2EAECA2683F/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

tags:

olmert, prime minister, public confidence, corruption, bribery, lebanon, gaza

merrie says:

Calls for his resignation came from left, right and center although all acknowledged that by vowing, as he did Thursday night, to resign if charged, Olmert had won himself time. The investigation will probably take another month or two.

"The public doesn't have too much more patience," Colette Avital, a member of Parliament from the Labor Party, a partner in the governing coalition with Olmert's Kadima party, asserted in a typical comment. "He is simply discredited. It may take some more weeks or even months, but he won't be able to go on."

"We may end up with an Iranian mini-state in Lebanon as well as one in Gaza, and the political trouble in Jerusalem makes it much harder for Israel to react as it should," Steinitz added. "But, of course, this is not just a problem for Israel but for the whole Western world, especially the United States and France."