A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
The Olmert lnvestigation

1. Prime Minister Olmert admitted receiving money from a Woodmere businessman but insisted, "I look in the eye of each and every one of you and say I never took a bribe. I never took a penny in my pocket."

The media have portrayed this as a denial of wrongdoing, but I believe the opposite to the case.

Olmert, in fact, appears to be implicitly admitting illegalities relating to campaign finance. He wants to protect his reputation against hints that "taking money" means taking money for himself. He knows that if the Attorney General chooses to, there will be grounds for indictment for funnelling illegal campaign contributions through a charitable entity.

2. Olmert's policies have failed and it would be good for Israel if someone else would be prime minister. However, it would not be good for Israel for its prime minister to be forced out under the current circumstances.

3. Less than two years ago, Israel suffered badly when an incompetent government led it to war.

Despite this, Haaretz reports that:

At small internal meetings of Labor's leadership, somebody had this suggestion:
"We'll let Livni serve as premier for a year. We all know she'll buckle under
the pressure, that she lacks skills, that she doesn't have supportive
backing of the experienced and weighty sort. In the end we'll wind up
benefiting. Who will vote for Kadima after such a term in office?" And somebody
else replied: "It's too risky a gamble. You don't let CSKA take to the court,
win in the first three quarters and hope it falls apart in the final
quarter."

This is indicative of how little many of Israel's "leaders" actually care about their country. Iran is developing nuclear weapons, Hamas heads the PA, Hezbollah is getting increasingly stronger in Lebanon, and in just over eight months, there will be a new President of the United States. And with this in mind, some Labor leaders want Tzipi Livni to be prime minister based on their hope and expectation that she would fail (as she probably would), while other Labor leaders deem that strategy "too risky," lest Livni succeed.

4. Some bloggers have taken to debating the severity of the "crimes" committed by Mr. Talansky, the man who allegedly gave money to Olmert. For the record, Talansky has been accused of no crime and nobody has said that he is a suspect. Rather, he is a witness that the Attorney General would like to depose. It is unfortunate that despite those pesky rules about lashon hora and rechilus, anonymous people feel free to offer baseless and uninformed speculation on this matter.
posted on 5/09/2008