Channel Ten's news division revealed documents Wednesday night showing that Ehud Olmert, when he served as Minister of Industry and Trade in the previous government, used his influence in many government offices and bodies on behalf of over 100 fellow Likud members. State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss has announced he will investigate the allegations.
If the Attorney General doesn't order Olmert indicted, it means that the entire law enforcement establishment in Israel is a partner to these crimes.
"If the Attorney General doesn't order him [Olmert] indicted even after all this new evidence regarding appointments and tilting tenders," MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said, "it means that the entire law enforcement establishment in Israel is a partner to these crimes."
Avi Moskowitz, former Deputy Director-General of the Postal Authority, said today that he himself experienced the culture of political appointments and the like - and that he was ultimately fired for not going along with it. A former Likud Central Committee member, Moskowitz told Israel Radio this morning of an incident that occurred when he served in the Postal Authority while Olmert served as Minister of Industry and Trade. Moskowitz said that Olmert's top aide - the author of the Channel Ten document - all but ordered him to cancel a tender and/or to change the members of the commission so that his friends could be chosen to win the tender.
"I walked out of the office with a whole shopping list of names that he wanted to be chosen for various positions," Moskowitz said. Afterwards, he said, he refused to cooperate, with the support of Director-General Yossi Shelli - and was rebuked by Olmert's aide. "More than once," Moskowitz said, "we were told that we were not supplying the goods and we would be replaced - and in the end, that's exactly what happened."
Olmert served under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as Minister of Industry and Trade throughout the government's term, from February 2003 until April 2006. For part of that time, he was Finance Minister as well.
Olmert is already under investigation by the State Comptroller in what is known as the Bank Leumi privatization affair. The suspicion is that in 2005, while serving as Acting Finance Minister, Olmert tailored the terms for the privatization of one of Israel's largest assets, Bank Leumi, to suit his friends.
The documents uncovered by Channel Ten show that Olmert acted on behalf of some 115 Likud members and activists. He allegedly used his control over the Investment Center, the Small Business Authority, the Employment Service's Foreign Workers Unit, the Israel Broadcasting Authority, Bezeq and others to help the Likud Central Committee members.
One document, for instance, states, "Pinny Sabah, Central Committee member from Ashkelon - we arranged 21 foreign workers for his friend." Another member received, according to the investigation, a full-time care worker for his mother.
MK Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party), the Chairman of the Knesset State Control Committee, called for Olmert's immediate resignation. "The corruption industry of the Prime Minister for the purpose of buying party activists is astonishing in its gravity," Orlev said, "and is beyond what could have been imagined."
Orlev said he would convene the Committee he heads for an urgent session to demand that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz investigate the scandal. The Ometz "Good Government" organization has also asked Mazuz to look into the allegations and determine whether a criminal investigation should be launched.
The Prime Minister's Bureau said in response that all the appointments noted in the Channel Ten documents were totally legal, that Moskowitz's statements are lies and motivated by external considerations, and that he and Shelli were fired because they did not carry out their jobs appropriately.