Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and Intelligence Agencies Minister Dan Meridor
on Saturday took on former prime minister Ehud Olmert as he deliberates on his
political future.
According to Meridor, though it would be legal for
Olmert to pursue the premiership, there should be a loftier moral
norm.
“I’m not Olmert’s adviser, but in my opinion it is not appropriate,
and if he behaves wisely, he will not run [in the upcoming election],” Meridor
said on Channel 2’s Meet the Press. “I don’t think a person in his [legal]
situation should run in an election. Even if it is permitted, I think it’s
inappropriate.”
Meridor added that the Israeli public wants leaders with
integrity.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said US billionaire Sheldon
Adelson’s financial contributions to the campaign of presidential candidate Mitt
Romney gave the false impression that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
interfered in the US elections on the side of the Republican.
“We
refrained from interfering in the democratic process in the United States,”
Steinitz said at a cultural event in Beersheba.
“The claim is baseless.
Because Sheldon Adelson contributed money to Romney, and he is also a friend of
the prime minister, they started to claim it was Israeli interference,” he
added.
Steinitz attacked Ehud Olmert for claiming Netanyahu took Romney’s
side in the election, accusing the former prime minister of being
“irresponsible” and causing damage to the relationship between Israel and the
US.
Following US President Barack Obama’s reelection on Tuesday night,
Olmert told Jewish community leaders in New York that “the prime minister has a
right to prefer one candidate over another, but it would be better, obviously if
he kept it to himself. What took place this time was a breaking of all the
rules, when our prime minister intervened in the US elections in the name of an
American billionaire,” a reference to Adelson.
“Netanyahu’s behavior in
recent months brings up the question if Netanyahu has a friend in the White
House, and I’m not sure,” Olmert said.
“This could be very critical in
certain areas.”
On Friday, Olmert told the San Francisco Jewish
Federation that he will be “very active in changing the current Israeli
government,” hinting at a possible political comeback.
Olmert’s
associates have said that he would decide on his political future following the
US election, and that Obama’s reelection is encouraging to the former prime
minister. He is expected to make an announcement soon after he returns to
Israel, sometime after Thursday.
Olmert’s political prospects encountered
new challenges on Wednesday night when the State Attorney’s Office filed a
Supreme Court appeal against the acquittals and the light sentence he received
over corruption charges.
If the state wins at the Supreme Court level,
Olmert could be convicted of harsher crimes than he was at trial, and could even
end up going to jail.
Since Obama’s reelection, Netanyahu has gone out of
his way to dispel the notion that he strained ties with Israel’s most important
ally, which has become a political liability at home.
“The alliance
between Israel and the United States is strong. We have a strategic partnership.
We have cooperation in all areas, but especially in the security sphere; there,
cooperation is deep, broad and fundamental,” Netanyahu said on Thursday. “One of
the foundations of our security is the brave partnership between us and the
United States.”
On Wednesday, the prime minister hosted US Ambassador
Daniel Shapiro in his Jerusalem office to pledge his support for
Obama.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.