Word: olmert
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...result of the new probe, in a week when Olmert should have been regaling the press about Israel's myriad successes, he was instead parrying accusations that he had allegedly threatened Talansky to deter him from giving evidence to Israeli police. "Who am I, Tony Soprano?" Olmert remarked angrily...
...That this sordid spectacle burst like an errant firework in front of his impressive array of guests will certainly have embarrassed the Israeli Prime Minister. A Monday poll showed that 59% of Israelis now believe that Olmert should resign...
...Olmert's prospects were not helped by the fact that his longtime office manager, Shula Zakin, has been interrogated four times in the past two weeks by Israel's fraud squad, and that his personal attorney and the keeper of his secrets, Uri Messer, was spotted wandering despondently along the center divider of the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, according to Israeli media reports. (Messer claims he was simply lost.) Police investigators say that Messer, Zakin and businessman Talansky are all giving evidence in the criminal probe against Olmert. (Messer is being questioned for his role in managing Olmert...
...Still, long-time observers of Israeli politics won't write off Olmert. Four previous investigations into suspected bribery and influence peddling produced no charges, which could well be the outcome of the latest probe. Olmert has vowed that if he is indicted he will resign, which would trigger off a messy war of succession within his own centrist Kadima party - a scenario nobody wants. Should Olmert be ousted, Israel would face early elections, which polls currently show would be won by the conservative Likud party, led by ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu, a staunch critic of Olmert's peace efforts...
...Olmert has hired three top defense lawyers and is doing his best, during this week of independence celebrations, to put on a tight party smile for his all-star guests...