Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
AP
The Ehud Olmert myth
Op-ed: Former Prime Minister Olmert was on his way down even without indictment against him
In the summer of 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
was at his best. He was doing well in the polls. The Israeli
masses fell in love with his frugal habits and were deeply impressed by the integrity that characterized his new party.
On the diplomatic front, Olmert also did the unbelievable and managed to formulate a draft agreement for a final-status deal with Mahmoud Abbas.
The signing ceremony was only two or three months away. “I am a very popular prime minister,” Olmert boasted in an unforgettable speech.
Olmert continued to enjoyed immense appreciation over the manner in which he managed the Second Lebanon War. His convergence plan for Judea and Samaria was perceived as a brilliant move, not to mention the disengagement plan’s outcome.
Political Drama
Sima Kadmon
Op-ed: Nobody believes former PM's announcement that he will not be returning to politics
Yet precisely then, state prosecutors arrived, made up the Talansky case and forced Olmert to quit. Attorney General Mazuz, State Prosecutor Lador and a few other rightist agents in black robes fiercely objected to the division of Jerusalem, and in a malicious move attributed the so-called Rishon-Tours affair to Olmert. The prime minister had to quit prematurely.
Well, every Israeli above the age of 13 realizes that the above description is baseless. The political landscape of the State Prosecutor’s Office is largely similar to the Olmert environment. No official institution is more hated by the Right than the prosecution. Yet nonetheless, Olmert’s close associates claimed last week that a rightist legal conspiracy prompted the dismissal of a serving prime minister at his peak. Apparently, they too realize this is nonsense.
Psychological warfare
Olmert was a prime minister on the verge of collapse when he announced his retirement. In any event, he was not dismissed on political grounds, but his associates have an interest in leveraging the sense of injustice done to him, if it was at all done, in order to scare prosecutors and paralyze them.Olmert’s associates hope that the state prosecutor will think a hundred times before filing an appeal, and possibly may even decide to withdraw the Holyland case against the former PM. After all, Olmert’s defense team never shied away from psychological warfare.
Regrettably, the prosecution did not shy away from it either. This is its main failure in the former prime minister’s shocking acquittal. It found itself involved in needles quarrels with the defense attorneys that climaxed with Lador’s embarrassing apology to Olmert two weeks ago.
However, there is no reason for Lador to apologize again now over a putsch attempt that never was. Even according to the verdict of acquittal, a few matters remain that in fact require an apology from Olmert.
