TEL AVIV — A mushrooming scandal just days before President Bush arrives to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state has many Israelis demanding that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resign.
Lawmakers both inside and outside Mr. Olmert’s governing coalition said yesterday it was time for the prime minister to go — a barrage of invective that came just hours after Mr. Olmert admitted accepting money from New York financier Moshe Talansky.
Mr. Olmert said in a brief television address the previous night that the cash was for political campaigning, not bribes. But many greeted his explanation with skepticism.
“Millions of shekels in hand,” said the front page headline in the Ma’ariv newspaper.
“That’s it. It’s time to come to a parting of ways,” political commentator Shalom Yerushalmi wrote in the same newspaper.
“The prime minister, from this moment, is nothing but a lame and limping duck who casts great shame on the nation and its government. … The meeting with President Bush will be lead by a prime minister who is suspected of illegal transfer of funds.”
A police inquiry made public late Thursday to determine whether the prime minister accepted bribe money has the normally confident Mr. Olmert looking unusually tense.
But in politics, Mr. Olmert also has a reputation as a tough survivor.
Mr. Olmert survived a torrent of criticism over his handling of the indecisive 2006 war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
In addition to marking Israel’s birthday, Mr. Bush is expected to push Israelis and Palestinians to move forward with negotiations on a peace agreement before he leaves office.
Mr. Olmert’s legal troubles could make the prospects of a peace deal even more difficult.
“The prime minister today is not focused on the issues of state, and he is not suited to it,” said Gideon Saar of the opposition Likud Party, which is calling for the dissolution of parliament and early elections. “The entire government is sunk in serial corruption allegations.”
Mr. Olmert has said that he would step down if confronted with an indictment, while also promising to fight the charges.
The prime minister already faces police inquiries into political appointments made during his tenure as trade minister as well as a real estate deal that brought him valuable Jerusalem property at a significant discount.
The police are investigating cash transfers from Mr. Talansky to Olmert associate attorney Uri Messer during Mr. Olmert’s tenure as Jerusalem mayor and a Cabinet minister.
Israeli legal commentators suggested there’s a low bar of evidence in bribery cases, and that prosecutors don’t necessarily need to prove what the money was used for or where it originated.
“This new investigation is a kind of straw that breaks the camel’s back. I don’t see how the prime minister can lead the government in this situation,” said Eitan Cabel, a lawmaker from the Labor Party, Mr. Olmert’s largest coalition partner. “We need to reconsider our future steps in this government.”
Indeed, many analysts see the Labor Party and its leader, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, as holding the key to Mr. Olmert’s survival or demise.
Labor doesn’t relish the idea of elections because polls show the rival Likud and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a lead.
On the other hand, Labor doesn’t want to be perceived as extending the lifeline of a handicapped government.
Mr. Olmert’s possible resignation wouldn’t necessarily force elections, even though it is expected to bring yet more pressure for a dissolution of the parliament.
In the event the prime minister decides to step down, he could be replaced by a new leader from his Kadima Party if he or she could hold together the coalition.
Israeli political analysts have counted out Mr. Olmert prematurely before. A year ago, after a government panel released damning initial findings regarding the prime minister’s handling of the Lebanon war, many believed Mr. Olmert would not last for even weeks.
“As long as formal moves aren’t made by the attorney general and he is not indicted, Olmert is the king of survivors, he’s not going to give up,” said Hebrew University political science professor Avraham Diskin.
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