Ehud Olmert
In a number of interviews to the Media during the
election campaign for the 17th Knesset in
2006, Ehud Olmert introduced to the public his
convergence plan.
In the
Elections for the 17th Knesset on March 28, despite scoring a weaker-than-expected showing of 29 seats, Olmert's party, Kadima, was still the largest block in the
Knesset and thus the first choice for assembling a coalition. In his victory speech, Olmert promised to make Israel a just, strong, peaceful and prosperous state, respecting the rights of the minorities, cherishing education, culture and science and above all—striving to achieve lasting and definite peace with the Palestinians. Olmert stated that as Israel is willing to compromise for peace, the Palestinians must be flexible in their positions as well. He stated that if the Palestinians, with
Hamas now leading the
Palestinian Authority, refuse to recognize the State of Israel, then Israel "will take her own fate in her hands" directly, implying unilateral action. The future of the next governing coalition largely depends on the goodwill of other parties to cooperate with the newly elected prime minister.
As of Friday,
April 14, 2006, Sharon is no longer in a temporarily incapacitated state, having been in the hospital for 100 days he is now permanently incapacitated. On April 11, the Israeli Cabinet appointed Olmert Interim Prime Minister, effective April 14, unless Sharon's health improved. As Sharon's health did not improve, Olmert became the Prime Minister of Israel on April 14. [
1]
Olmert was elected to the
17th Knesset in 2006.
On
May 4, 2006, Olmert presented his new government to the Knesset. Olmert became Prime Minister and Minister for Welfare. The control over Welfare Ministry is expected to be given to
United Torah Judaism if it will join the government. Olmert would, however, remain Minister of Welfare as UTJ usually prefers to manage government ministries from a Deputy Minister position.
|
Ehud Olmert and George W. Bush |
On
May 24, 2006 Olmert was invited to address a joint session of the US Congress where he stated that his government would proceed with a
unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank if no Palestinian partner came forward. Olmert was the third Israeli Prime Minister to have been invited to speak at a joint session of Congress.On
June 4, 2006 Olmert announced he will meet
Mahmoud Abbas to resume talks on the
Road map for peace.
In
July 2006, the Lebanese-based terrorist group Hezbollah killed eight Israeli soldiers, kidnapped two others, and began launching Iran-made Katyusha rockets into Northern Israeli towns. This prompted Israeli retaliation including many civilians. On the Lebanese side, the number of dead was reaching 1000. The Israeli Defense Forces have long countered that Hezbollah uses civilians as human shields, launching rockets from civilian homes and commercial buildings. This is a widely known practice of Hezbollah since the Lebanese civil war between Shiite Muslims and Maronite Christians.
On the recent conflict, Olmert mentioned that air strikes will not stop until two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah are released, and Hezbollah is disarmed, as it was required to do according to United Nations Resolutions
1559. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair have supported Olmert's views on disarming Hezbollah and having an international peace keeping force deployed into Southern Lebanon. Olmert has made it clear that Israel has no territorial interests in Lebanon, as illustrated by the Israeli pullout of Lebanon in 2000.
Under Olmert, the policy of ambiguity on the possession by Israel of nuclear weapons remains intact. One result of this is the continued detention in Israel of the nuclear whistleblower,
Mordechai Vanunu, who spent eighteen years in prison in Israel after breaking confidentiality agreements and divulging to a news organization in Britain about Israel's suspected nuclear projects.
In the 1970s, Olmert was rumored to be a party to a complex scheme involving well-known Jerusalem businessmen, organized crime, corrupt legislators, and retired General
Rechavam Ze'evi. This affair was documented in investigative journalist
Aryeh Avneri's
Ha'tvusa in
1992. During the run-up to the Ze'evi libel suit, Olmert allegedly took funds from the Likud treasury for his defense fund, although his lawyers were from his own law firm, which would effectively constitute
bribery. All accusations against Olmert were eventually
settled out of court.
Israeli businessman
David Appel has been suspected of bribing both Sharon and Olmert, while he was mayor of Jerusalem, in what is known as the
Greek island affair.
On February 20, 2006, it was disclosed that an inquiry is being carried out on the 1999 sale and lease-back of Olmert's Jerusalem house, which allegedly was done on financial terms very favorable to Olmert, in what would amount to be an illegal campaign contribution and/or bribe. [
2]
Ehud Olmert's wife, Aliza, is a writer of novels and theater plays, as well as an artist. It has been rumored that Aliza was a (founding) member of the Israeli left wing organization
Women in Black, but this rumor is unsubstantiated. [
3]. Still, Aliza is known to be more left-leaning in her politics than her husband. She claimed to have voted for him for the first time in 2006.
The couple has four biological children and an adopted daughter. The oldest daughter, Michal, holds a Masters in
psychology and leads workshops in
creative thinking. Their daughter
Dana is a lecturer in literature at the
Tel Aviv University and the editor of a literature series. She is a self-identified
lesbian and lives with her partner in
Tel Aviv. Her parents are accepting of her sexual identity and partner. Dana is active in the
Jerusalem branch of the Israeli
human rights organization
Machsom Watch. In June 2006 she attended a march in Tel Aviv protesting against the widespread killings by the IDF of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, that was part of the backdrop (through capture of Israeli soldiers in Gaza and Lebanon) for the later war against Lebanon. As a result of taking part in this protest, she was the subject of bitter right wing criticism in her home country. Their son Shaul married an Israeli artist and lives in
New York. After Shaul was through with military service, he signed a petition of the Israeli left-wing organization
Yesh G'vul. He later became the spokesman of
Beitar Jerusalem FC, his father's favorite football team. This team is often associated with the Israeli right. Ehud's younger son Ariel, who did not serve in the
Israeli Army, studies
French literature at the
Sorbonne in
Paris. Shuli is their adopted daughter. She was orphaned from her mother at birth. [
4] [
5]
Olmert's father Mordechai, considered a pioneer of Israel's land settlement and a former member of the Second and Third Knessets, grew up in the Chinese city of
Harbin where he led the local Betar youth movement. Olmert's grandfather, J.J. Olmert settled in Harbin after fleeing post World War-I Russia.[
6] In 2004, Ehud Olmert visited China and paid his respects at the tomb of his grandfather in Harbin. Olmert said that his father had never forgotten his Chinese hometown after moving to what was then Palestine, in 1933 at the age of 22. "When he died at the age of 88, he spoke his last words in Chinese," he recalled. [
7]
Quotes"We simply cannot afford to make Israel [nine miles] wide again at its centre. We can't allow the Palestinians to be a couple [of miles] from [Tel Aviv's] Ben Gurion airport in the age of shoulder-fire missiles with the capacity to shoot down jumbo jets. But that doesn't mean we must remain in every corner of the West Bank or in Gaza, where fewer than 100,000 Jews, living next to 1.3 million Palestinians, have been protected by twice as many soldiers" >
*
Ehud Olmert at the Knesset*
Profile: Ehud Olmert*
Ehud Olmert*
Anti-Olmert website (Hebrew)
*
PBS Frontline/World's piece on Ehud Olmert*
Ehud Olmert Profile by Ynetnews
