Olmert slams Netanyahu's 'US election interference'

Former PM is expected to announce political future in weeks.

EHUD OLMERT 370 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
EHUD OLMERT 370
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert positioned himself for a political comeback, slamming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in a meeting with Jewish community leaders in New York Wednesday.
Olmert's associates have said that he will decide on his political future following the US election, and US President Barack Obama's reelection is encouraging to the former prime minister. He is expected to make an announcement soon after he returns to Israel after November 15.
"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."
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Olmert also criticized Netanyahu for turning Israel into a partisan issue.
"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," Olmert added, in reference to Jewish-American casino magnate and Yisrael Hayom owner Sheldon Adelson, a major donor to Republican candidate Mitt Romney and Netanyahu.
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