Olmert odds and ends

With the end of his political career at hand (or perhaps in a half year) it’s hard to remember that there was a time when Ehud Olmert was considered an up and comer in the Likud party. (He did rise to the top, of course. But as Prime Minister he never electrified.)

Back in April 1988 he participated in Nightline’s famous “townhall meeting” between Palestinians and Israelis. The New York Times reviewed the meeting. It recounts perhaps the most dramatic point in the event:

What was inescapable, though, was that on some matters they seemed as united as the Palestinians. After Mr. Erakat’s impassioned speech, Mr. Zucker attacked him. He said, equally impassioned, that Syrians and Jordanians had killed more Palestinians than had Israelis.

The audience of Arabs and Jews in the theater – getting the audience together may have been the act of a sovereign power, too – responded with murmurs and applause. Some of the Jews, obviously, wanted to back up Mr. Zucker.

”I don’t need your applause,” he said curtly to the audience. He also said the Palestinians ”won’t recognize my right to live.” The Palestinians didn’t look at him, although all four Israelis stared intently at them.

In Erakat’s “impassioned” speech he explicitly compared Israel to Nazi Germany. That was too much even for Peace Now advocate Zucker, who said that he might be able to make peace with the others but not with Erakat.

(Previously I blogged about this townhall here. I was a bit premature.)

If there’s been a feeling that Olmert might hold on indefinitely in the face of this investigation, it’s been because we’ve been here before.

In 1996 after Binyamin Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister, he was stymied in his attempt to form a government as 3 men he had wanted in his cabinet were in legal jeopardy. The NYT reported:

Adding yet another complication to Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu’s tangled efforts to form a coalition, the Attorney General has advised him that two candidates for senior Cabinet positions face legal problems.

The notices coincided with reports that Mr. Netanyahu wanted to replace Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair, who was appointed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. But Mr. Netanyahu denied the reports, and it was unclear whether the legal actions or the leaks came first.

The affected candidates were Jerusalem’s Mayor, Ehud Olmert, one of the most popular members of Mr. Netanyahu’s party, the Likud, and Rafael Eitan, a right-wing former general who allied his small Tsomet Party with the Likud on the promise of a senior Cabinet post.

The other cabinet member whose appointment was stopped by Ben Yair was Yaacov Ne’eman who was eventually acquitted and was appointed Finance Minister later. The charges against Gen. Eitan, if I remember correctly, didn’t even make it to court. And Ehud Olmert was acquitted.

Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert has charged that former attorney-general Michael Ben-Yair indicted him “because he [Ben-Yair] is a wicked person.”

“I am convinced that Ben-Yair had premeditated ulterior motives, because that is the kind of person he is. Everyone who knows Ben-Yair knows that he acted out of evil intent, to settle personal accounts and pave his own way to political options,” Olmert was quoted telling the Bar Association’s journal, Halishka.

Olmert was acquitted on September 28 by Tel Aviv District Court on charges of campaign finance fraud in connection with the 1988 Knesset election and the 1989 local council elections, when he was the …

I think that Ben-Yair’s efforts were politically, not legally motivated, but given the similarity in his outrage now, to his outrage then, I wonder if maybe Olmert was lucky the first time. Maybe he figured that if he was innocent the first time, he’s innocent now.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.