EHUD Olmert, Israel's prime minister, faces growing damage from a corruption scandal after a prosecutor revealed that money Mr Olmert claimed was election funding from an American-Jewish business man was received outside any poll campaign.
Moshe Lador, the prosecutor, this week gave the most detailed public account yet of the allegations against Mr Olmert during a Supreme Court hearing.
Mr Olmert has admitted taking money from the businessman, Morris Talansky, but denied any wrongd
oing, describing Mr Talansky as a fundraiser and the money as contributions for primary election campaigns.
However, Mr Lador said Mr Olmert received the money during his tenure as minister of industry from 2003-5.
He said Mr Talansky had given Mr Olmert "dollars, in cash, during brief meetings from time to time".
Israel's Supreme Court yesterday cleared the way for a lower court to hear preliminary evidence from Mr Talansky.
Mr Talansky is expected to give his evidence on 25 May and authorities are anxious to question Mr Olmert before he knows Mr Talansky's account, most probably this Friday.
Two other American-Jewish billionaires, S Daniel Abraham and Sheldon Adelson, who were visiting Israel last week, were questioned by police as part of the Olmert investigation. The prime minister faces four other police investigations, including one on suspicion that he paid well below the market price for a Jerusalem home in return for providing benefits to the seller. He denies any wrongdoing.
Israeli leaders did not always consort with millionaires or live in style.
The founding father, David Ben-Gurion, moved to a hut in the desert kibbutz of Sde Boker on his retirement, from which he still exercised influence on the government .
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the country's second president, is remembered for becoming angry when he returned from a trip abroad to learn that he had been given a pay rise.
Menachem Begin and Golda Meir were also known for their no-frills lifestyles.
But recent prime ministers, starting with Benjamin Netanyahu's election in 1996, have broken with past modesty, analysts said. What started out as a society with an egalitarian ethos has become much more wealthy and materialistic, while for politicians the introduction of primary elections in the 1990s has created a situation in which candidates need to raise a lot of money.
Yossi Alpher, the former director of the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies, said: "It's a very different Israel. The standards of what it is to be a successful person have changed. We're a wealthier country, so in that sense the corruption looks worse,"
He added: "In the early years you needed ration cards, and corruption meant selling food on the black market. Now it's millions; it's real estate."
As for Mr Olmert, it is too early to write him off despite the seriousness of the allegations, according to one commentator, Uri Dromi. Potential replacements, including Mr Netanyahu, who was unpopular as premier, and the foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, seen as inexperienced, are not so appealing, he said.
"You don't see people rioting in the streets to get rid of him. They know we're up against serious challenges and threats and, looking around at the others, they say maybe it's not so bad."
ANALYSIS
THE overwhelming view in Israel is that the post-Olmert political era has already begun.
"The public doesn't have too much more patience," said Colette Avital, an MP from the Labour Party, a partner in the governing coalition with Olmert's Kadima Party.
"He is simply discredited. It may take some more weeks, or even months, but he won't be able to go on."
Since Ehud Olmert has been investigated several times before and proven himself to be a highly skilled political survivor – a "Houdini", in the words of a senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity – his political obituary may yet again prove premature.
This inquiry, however, is widely viewed as the most serious he has faced. It involves allegations that he took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Morris Talansky of Long Island, New York, over a decade.
Mr Olmert said that they were legal campaign contributions and that his name would be cleared.
Shalom Yerushalmi, a commentator for the newspaper Maariv, wrote that while the prime minister was asking to be believed, "if the public could respond collectively, it would, of course, ask: 'Why? For how many years can we hear about your escapades with the police and go on believing you?'."
Numerous analysts argue that Israel's intense security challenges can not be met effectively by a leader with such low public confidence.
The full article contains 771 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
