Olmert: Clean Hands?

photo: David Rubinger

The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was in China, and loving it. An Israeli cartoon shows Olmert's aides beckoning to him from the door of his Beijing hotel room, while the P.M. sits on his comfy bed, reluctant to leave.

It's not that he likes Chinese food; Olmert just does not want to go home. With good reason. Police could be waiting for him. Fraud detectives are investigating charges that Olmert pulled some shady deals with Bank Leumi while he was finance minister. Also, his trusted office manager and longtime secretary is likely to be prosecuted for taking bribes, and every Israeli is asking: Was Olmert in on the scam? In the court of popular opinion, Olmert is guilty. But Israelis say, with a touch of grudging respect, that the guy is so clever he must have covered his tracks.

Still, the scandal has hurt his ratings. One recent poll showed that Olmert's approval was down to 7%. His only consolation is that after the debacle of the war in Lebanon, the rating of his Labor party rival and Defense Minister Amir Peretz dove even lower, to a pathetic, single percentage point.

Olmert's weakness is also Washington's loss. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is arriving in the Middle East on Saturday, and she knows that Olmert is too feeble to deliver any meaningful concessions to the Palestinians. The Israelis are always saying that they lack strong partners among the Palestinians with whom they can make peace. The sad thing is, the Palestinians can now flip around that excuse and use it against the Israelis. And it makes the chances of Ms. Rice making any progress on this trip to the Middle East just about nil.
By Tim McGirk/Jerusalem