Following a third round of questioning of Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, amid fresh claims that he defrauded several charities and state institutions to pay for the same trips abroad and to fund family vacations, the Israeli police and Justice Ministry released a joint statement saying they are widening a corruption investigation against the Israeli premier.
The police and State Prosecutor's Office are now simultaneously handling six allegations of corruption against Olmert. This is the sixth time that he has been investigated in three years and due to the new evidence and the severity of the allegations the investigating team has been enlarged.However, this time the accusations appear so serious and there is little doubt that Olmert will survive politically. There is also widespread speculation that this affair will bring his Kadima party down as the party prepares to hold primary elections in September.
The State Prosecutor's Office will need some time to decide whether to charge the prime minister, but should an indictment be filed, Olmert has already promised to leave office.
However, Olmert has vigorously denied the accusations that he stole thousands of dollars from charities, calling them "distorted and despicable."
But a source close to the investigation claimed that Olmert actually further implicated himself during intense questioning.
"It could be said that Olmert was unable to extricate himself from the cloud of suspicion," an official said on Sunday of the allegations that the prime minister had asked several charities and state institutions to pay for the same trips abroad and used the money to fund family vacations.
Furthermore, sources within his Kadima party, including Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and Minister of Internal Security Avi Dichter, assert that Olmert is also attempting to sabotage a vote involving the recruitment of a majority needed to alter Kadima's code that would enable the upcoming September primaries.
When the primaries are held, there is little doubt that these will spell the end of Olmert's less than illustrious career.
Originally Olmert was being investigated primarily for allegedly receiving bribe money, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, from American businessman Morris Talansky during his tenure as Jerusalem mayor and minister of industry and trade.
The latest allegations now involve Olmert double-dipping by asking for and receiving money from organizations primarily in Israel and primarily involved in public activity, to finance his family trips abroad.
Olmert's travel agency, Rishon Tours, allegedly sent invoices to each organization who gave money for the same flights, as though each had been the only contributor.
Each organization then received a receipt for the trip that it had funded and the remainder of the money, apparently $100,000 accumulated over the years, was deposited in a private banking account belonging to Olmert.
The agencies which allegedly funded Olmert's trips include AKIM, a charity geared toward aiding mentally disabled children; ALEH, a group that cares for physically challenged children; Yad Vashem; the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and American Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces.
Consequently, the political fallout from the latest allegations has involved the entire spectrum of Israel's political make-up with sources from the radical left to the ultra-conservative right lambasting Olmert.
The latest suspicions against Olmert "reinforce the demand that he fight for his innocence as a private citizen, rather than as a prime minister," the left-leaning Meretz Chairman Haim Oron said, while Knesset Member Shelly Yacimovich (Labor) called on the prime minister to resign immediately.
The prime minister "should not wait for his dismissal in the September primaries, but rather, announce his resignation immediately. The Israeli public is entitled to have a prime minister who is not facing criminal suspicions," she told the Israeli daily Haaretz.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the hawkish Likud party, Gideon Sa'ar said it would be interesting to see how the Labor party will be justifying its decision to remain in the Olmert government.
"Labor's membership in the Olmert government carries moral and public turpitude," he said.
Regional politicians, from Israel's Palestinian negotiating partners to Syria's Bashar al-Assad, are also only too well aware of Olmert's weakness and his desperate attempt to make some political headway in a last-bid attempt to salvage what remains of his tattered reputation.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the one hand is hoping that peace talks on the Israeli-Palestinian issue will be accelerated as these might be put on hold indefinitely should a domestic Israeli political crisis arise.
The Syrian leader, on the other hand, stated he is in no rush to help Olmert gain any political brownie points vis-à-vis indirect negotiations over the Golan Heights, which Israel and Syria are currently conducting through the mediation of third-party Turkey.
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