The Ehud Olmert show

Israel’s most watched political trial ended on Tuesday with former prime minister Ehud Olmert acquitted of the most serious charges against him in the case that felled his political career. The Israeli papers all provided pages and pages on the trial, with Yedioth Ahronoth leading the way with 18 pages of coverage.

All the front-page editors must have called each other last night to coordinate because all the front pages have the same format: a headline that includes the word “innocent” and four previews of opinion pieces inside the paper. (Only Maariv breaks this trend with the headline “Justice and its cost”).

Israel Hayom reminds its readers on the front page that Olmert was still convicted of one charge with its headline, “Two acquittals and a conviction.” The first opinion piece that Israel Hayom features is from Mati Tuchfeld who writes that this case is not why Ehud Olmert left the government. “Olmert was one of the most hated prime ministers in Israeli history, if not the most hated,” he writes, going on to say that Olmert realized this and the corruption charges just gave him a chance to resign.

Writing in Maariv, Ben Caspit writes that the acquittals on the two major charges do not make Olmert a saint. “Ehud Olmert is not righteous. Far from it. He’s a skilled political manipulator — a hedonist who also suffers from arrogance and over-confidence.” But despite the harsh words, Caspit concludes that the difference between Olmert and other politicians of his generation is simply that someone decided to investigate him.

Yedioth Ahronoth lays out the charges against Olmert and how the judges responded to each one. Sima Kedmon writes in an opinion piece: “Who expected that a prime minister who resigned in the midsdle of his term, but in the end, there is nothing against him that justified that extreme move.” With the acquittals on the main charges, “The feeling is that if there is no conviction or designation of moral turpitude in the Holyland case, Olmert will return in a big way.”

Haaretz’s coverage begins with an editorial that highlights the historical significance of the verdict. “For the first time in the history of the state, a former prime minister was convicted of a criminal offense for breach of trust.” The Haaretz editorial board does not take this lightly: “Conviction for an offense of breach of trust is also not trivial as Olmert and his advocates claimed yesterday, since it is a law designed to maintain public confidence in government and the purity of public service.” However, the piece concludes with the recommendation that the prosecution take a hard look at what the trial actually accomplished.

Blame the prosecution

Many of the papers placed the blame for the failure to convict Ehud Olmert squarely on the shoulders of the state prosecutor Moshe Lador. Maariv report that Lador is refusing to resign over the failure to convict. The article quotes an unnamed employee in the State Prosecutor’s Office who said, “This is Yom Kippur for the state’s prosecutors,” alluding to the traditional seeking of atonement during the Jewish High Holiday. Included in the coverage is a graphic that displays the amount of work that went into the prosecution: 157 meetings, 19,000 pages of minutes, 102 witness, 966 presentations, and 4,000 pages of conclusions.

In Israel Hayom, Dr. Gabi Avital writes that the trial shows that, “the rule of law has been replaced by the rule of judges.” The trial was a failure of the prosecutors, not because they failed to convict Olmert but rather because Olmert was denied the basic tenet of innocent until proven guilty. “The acquittal of the prime minister is cold water that should cool the excessive zealousness of these major cases.”

Haaretz columnist Yossi Verter writes that state prosecutor Moshe Lador must resign in wake of the verdict. “Yesterday the courts dealt a heavy blow to the judgment of the most respected public prosecutor.” Verter then demands that Lador resign immediately, “As long as he is the head of the prosecutor’s office, the system is infected.”

Yedioth Ahronoth republishes a 2008 article in which Lador stated that, “I’ll bear the responsibility for the results.” In an accompanying column Tova Zimuki writes, “If someone expresses the opinion that Lador will resign following the court’s decision, that person probably does not know the man and his self-righteous conviction.”

What’s next?

Most of the coverage also mentioned, at least in passing, the possibility of Olmert returning to politics now that he has been cleared of the major charges. Yedioth dedicates a page to the possibility in an article titled, “He is burning to return [to politics].” The article quotes a Likud source who states that an Olmert return would give Bibi a headache, since “Until now, there was no alternative to Bibi.” The article also quotes a worker in Olmert’s former party, Kadima, who told the paper, “Tell Ehud that we all love him.”

Israel Hayom asks the same question on Page 11: “Olmert on his way to a comeback?” The article quotes Kadima MK Yoel Hasson, who is optimistic about the possibility. “I hope that the acquittals of Olmert will pave the way for a return of Olmert to Israeli politics.” But Israel Hayom doesn’t share Hasson’s enthusiasm, reminding readers that Olmert still has the Holyland trial before he can start to think about his comeback.

But there is an issue with Olmert returning to politics, as Amir Oren writes in Haaretz, “If he doesn’t appeal the conviction, or if he does appeal and fails, he will have a criminal record.” And that criminal record could complicate things for someone wanting to return to the political spotlight. “For example, Olmert will no longer be able to fly to America.”

Other news?

Getting past Olmert, Maariv reports that President Shimon Peres is concerned about the Levy Committee Report that was delivered to Netanyahu on Sunday. Peres said that “the settlements endanger the Jewish majority.” Peres’s statement comes on the heels of the Levy Committee Report, which recommended ways to legalize the settlements in West Bank.

Yedioth reports on a tragedy from South America: two Israelis, both in their early twenties, were killed and another nine were injured in two separate bus accidents on a very narrow road between the Peruvian cities of Cuzco and Lima. The accidents occurred roughly at the same time.