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Photo: Tomer Applebaum
Olmert and Zaken in court. What about the affairs which have not been exposed?
Photo: Tomer Applebaum
Sima Kadmon

Former PM and his bureau chief, talking like two criminals

Op-ed: Even those who couldn’t believe Ehud Olmert had reached such a moral low point were in for a major shock with the release of his estranged aide's recordings.

Both those who told themselves until Monday evening that nothing concerning Ehud Olmert could surprise them anymore, that this is who he is, corrupt to the core, and those who until listening to Shula Zaken's recordings couldn’t believe that a former prime minister had reached such a moral low point – both were in for a major shock Monday.

 

 

The former, because the evidence of alleged corruption is unbearable, and there is nothing like hearing it to prove it. And the latter, because people don't want to believe that such things happen under their noses. Not between a former prime minister and his bureau chief. Not this way, in a hotel lobby, with elevator music in the background, in a spine-tingling dialogue between a man and a woman who share a history of almost 40 years of complete trust, total devotion, affection and love and dependence. A relationship which those who were closely familiar with it, and there were many such people, couldn't believe that anything would ever ruin it.

 

And here they are, sitting on the soft armchairs, the power couple from Jerusalem which had nothing standing in its way, talking quietly and intimately. One can imagine them leaning slightly forwards, so that the passerby would not listen in on the numbers they exchanged between them: $30,000, $50,000, NIS 45,000.

 

And that entire time, the woman is recording the man without his knowledge, getting him to talk, manipulating him to say things that would frame him. While he, on his part, is trying to persuade her not to testify, suggesting versions, presenting horrifying scenarios about investigations which would make her collapse, while she plants in the recording, as if unintentionally, positive evidence about herself, thinking that one day she would use this recording against the man she herself said was like God to her.

 

That may be the reason why the sentence most ingrained in my mind from all the horrific details emerging from these recordings is actually what was probably the only innocent sentence that came out of Zaken's mouth, when she tried to remind Olmert that he, and not she, was the one who offered to raise her salary by thousands of dollars out of Morris Talansky's account.

 

"It was at the David Citadel," she said, "when I brought you Passover rolls. Don’t you remember?"

 

That sentence contains the entire story. Between the tens of thousands of dollars moving around from one pocket to another and from there into the petty cash, in order to fund a good life for these two people, between the small and big transactions, the tricks and the most intimate secrets which they thought they would take to the grave – there were also Passover rolls which Zaken baked herself for her idol.

 

And so, between Olmert's demanding voice and the manipulative words of his former bureau chief, within all the drama emerging from these incriminating tapes, which have inflicted and will inflict a great tragedy on them, there was a sudden flicker of a scent of different days, days of a close relationship. Days in which Ehud believed that Shula would never betray him, and Shula believed that Ehud would protect her till the end.

 

Olmert and Zaken in the days in which 'Ehud believed that Shula would never betray him, and Shula believed that Ehud would protect her till the end' (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
Olmert and Zaken in the days in which 'Ehud believed that Shula would never betray him, and Shula believed that Ehud would protect her till the end' (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

 

And if we thought we saw everything on Monday – it turns out we were wrong. Apart from additional tapes, which are likely as horrifying as the ones we were exposed to on Monday, we still have Zaken's cross-examination ahead of us. She won't have an easy time. According to rumors, the former prime minister's lawyers are preparing a bloodbath for her.

 

When Olmert told Zaken in one of the conversations that the prosecutor would murder her on the stand, he was referring to Attorney Uri Korev, the Jerusalem District deputy prosecutor. The person who will ultimately do it will be his lawyer, Eyal Rosovsky, while Korev will be the one who will try to rescue her from his teeth.

 

And the troubling question, which will likely forever remain unanswered, is whether only some of the affairs these two were involved in have been exposed, and what about those which have not been exposed, as skeletons in the closet are alarming even when they are kept in the closet.

 

And what about the businessmen recruited by Olmert to pay Zaken's hush money? What did they know about the money they gave, and in exchange to what did they give it?

 

It's possible that the tapes exposed on Monday will not get Olmert more legally entangled than he already is, that they won't yield convictions and additional years in prison. It's possible. Perhaps the damage he will suffer is just another stone, a small pile of dirt, on his public grave.

 

And Shula Zaken, she has already been punished and no longer interests anyone publicly. The only thing she has gained, and this time rightfully, is the deep public aversion of people who see her as a woman who is as corrupt as the man she framed on Monday.

 

But the soundtrack that we heard Monday evening, the State of Israel's soundtrack, should continue echoing in our heads for a long time: A conversation between a former prime minister and his bureau chief, which sounds like a conversation between two criminals.

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.05.14, 08:39
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