Brekend Nieuws | Forum | Brits Nieuws | Het Nieuws van de V.S. | Het Nieuws van de wereld | Politiek Nieuws | Nieuws sc.i-technologie | Het Nieuws van de oorlog & van het Terrorisme | Het Nieuws van sporten | Multimedia | Vastgestelde Homepage

Donderdag, 29 Mei, 2008

Door Donald Macintyre | De Israëlische Eerste krachtigste de coalitiepartner heeft van Ehud Olmert van de Minister hem aan stap opzij in aanwezigheid van wijdverspreide woede bij beweringen uitgenodigd dat hij herhaaldelijk enveloppen ontvangen had die met contant geld van een zakenman van de V.S. worden gevuld.

In het spoor van verklaring door de zakenman Morris Talansky dat hij persoonlijk $150.000 (£76,000) voor M. Olmert tijdens een periode van zowat 15 jaar had overhandigd, de Minister en Arbeid spoorde de leider Ehud Barak van de Defensie van de Partij de Eerste Minister aan om bureau permanent te verlaten - of of zolang het politieonderzoek tegen hem verdergaat.

Maar terwijl de interventie van M. Barak's potentieel de ernstigste bedreiging nog voor de politieke overleving van M. Olmert's teweegbracht, kwam het niet met een uiterste termijn. Noch schudde het de duidelijke bepaling van M. Olmert's om in bureau tot te blijven of tenzij hij formeel wordt aangeklaagd.

M. Barak nodigde M. Olmert uit om de teugels van overheid „vrij te geven door [zelf] opschorting, vakantie, berusting of het verklaren van onbekwaam gemaakt“ en waarschuwde ervoor dat hij verkiezingen zou teweegbrengen als de Eerste Minister zich niet terugtrok of niet door zijn collega's in de beslissende partij Kadima werd vervangen.

Zeggend dat M. Olmert niet „kon meteen de uitdagingen behandelen die Israël, zoals Hamas, Hizbollah, Syrië, Iran en de gevangen militairen“ onder ogen zien en tezelfdertijd „zijn eigen zaken“ behandelen, voegde hij toe: „Daarom, handelend uit zorg voor het goed van het land… Ik geloof de Eerste Minister van leiden het van dag tot dag van de overheid moet losmaken.“

Volgens een onderzoek in de dagelijkse krant Haaretz, gelooft 70 percent van gekregen die - en 51 percent van kiezers in Kadima - de geen versie van M. Olmert's dat het geld dat hij van de Amerikaanse zakenman heeft ontvangen slechts voor zijn verkiezingscampagnes ging.

M. Barak lanceerde zijn interventie op een nieuwsconferentie in het gebouw van Knesset nadat de verklaring van M. Talansky's - die als „verdraaid“ door de advocaten van M. wordt verworpen Olmert's - scheen om de aandrang van de Eerste Minister tegen te spreken dieaan hij ten goede was persoonlijk van geen die betalingen gekomen aan hem tijdens de periode in onderzoek worden verricht.

Assistent van M. Olmert's, Tal Zilberstein, vertelde Israëlische televisie de „persconferentie veranderd niets“. “The Prime Minister was not considering resigning, nor taking a leave of absence, nor any of the other suggestions raised at that press conference,” he said. To do so would be tantamount to an admission of offences of which he intends “to prove his innocence”.

Uncertainty remains about how ready Mr Barak is to carry out his threat to lead his party out of the coalition and so trigger an election which the current polls suggest he would not win. While some of his allies suggested that the “moral message” he conveyed would increase his popularity, the polls indicate at present that Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud would be the biggest party after any new election.

The one factor that could alter that landscape would be if Mr Olmert were to be replaced as Kadima leader by Tzipi Livni, the Foreign Minister. She has reportedly incurred Mr Olmert’s anger by not notably rallying to his support but she is deemed to be the most popular politician in the country. However, she has rivals within Kadima such as Shaul Mofaz, the former chief of staff in the military who has a base among political activists though much less so in the country.

Ms Livni would also be best placed – among Kadima politicians – to inherit Mr Olmert’s efforts to conclude a “shelf agreement” on a two-state solution with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Concern that these could now grind to a halt were underlined yesterday when Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an aide to Mr Abbas, said there was “no doubt that what is happening in Israel will have negative repercussions on the negotiating track”.

Sima Kadmon, a columnist for the Yedhiot Ahronot daily, wrote in a front-page commentary yesterday: “The issue here is the unassuming way in which an elected official takes into his hands huge sums of money in cash, credit card or as a loan. Where is the shame? Where are we living?”

Sleaze and scandal in Israeli politics

* Omri Sharon, son of ex-prime minister Ariel Sharon, began a seven-month prison term in February 2008 after conviction on campaign funding violations. His father is mentioned in the inquiries but has not been charged.

* Finance minister, Avraham Hirchson, resigned in July 2007 under suspicion of embezzling millions from a union he used to run.

* Israel’s President, Moshe Katsav, forced to resign in June 2007 amid rape and sexual harassment charges.

* Olmert ally, Haim Ramon, convicted in March 2007 of forcibly kissing a female soldier. After a light sentence, Ramon returns to Olmert’s cabinet as Vice Premier.

* President Ezer Weizman is forced to resign in 2000 under suspicion of accepting money from a businessman.

* Prime Minister Ehud Barak and aides suspected in 2000 of campaign finance irregularities. No charges are filed.

* Decorated general Yitzhak Mordechai resigns from cabinet in 2000 after being charged with sexually assaulting female workers. He is convicted and given suspended sentence.

* Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspected in 1997 of engineering appointment of attorney general in exchange for support from the Shas party, but is not charged.

* Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin resigns in 1977 before an election in which his wife is found to have an illegal foreign currency account in the US.

See More:Israel World News 

Have Your Say: Olmert urged to stand down over corruption claims
Please note, only selected comments will be published.

Or discuss this report in our our new forums

RSS TrackBack URL

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 2:14 am and is filed under Political News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Loading ...

ADVERTISEMENTS

SITE MAPS

7/7 Afghanistan Alternative Energy Art BBC Big Brother Bilderberg Biometrics Bush CIA Climate Change Cover Up Cults Culture Database State David Hicks David Ray Griffin Democrats Demos Drugs Education EU False Flag FBI Fraud Free Speech Freemasons G8 Globalization Guantanamo Health News History ID Cards Internet Iran Iraq Israel Law Marches MI5 MI6 Microsoft Military MoD Money Music NASA Neocons NSA Oil Pakistan Podcast Police State Propaganda RFID RINF Rumsfeld Science Secrecy Security Space Sports Spying Stephen Lendman Technology Terrorism Tony Blair Torture TV UK News UN USA News Video Voting Warfare White House Wolfowitz World News Yahoo
2003 - 2005 Archives | 2005 - 2007 Archives | 2007 - 2008 Archives | Current Archives | Past Version