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Olmert Defiant Amidst Calls to Resign for Taking Bribes

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert defied a barrage of calls to resign on Friday after he admitted taking cash from an American businessman at the centre of a police inquiry into allegations of bribery.

Mr. Olmert, whose departure could disrupt U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations with the Palestinians, continued with his duties after telling the nation in a late-night address on Israel's 60th Independence Day that he would resign only if the attorney-general could produce sufficient evidence to indict him.

The Prime Minister, who is due to host U.S. President George W. Bush next week, looked relaxed when he addressed Canadian Jewish fundraisers for Israel in Jerusalem on Friday.

He made only an oblique, passing reference to his troubles, saying: “I have enough political issues to deal with here.”
“Millions of shekels – cash in hand,” screamed the front page of top-selling tabloid Maariv.

Legal sources say police suspect that Mr. Olmert took hundreds of thousands of dollars from a New York Jewish financier. Morris Talansky was tagged “The Laundry Man” in coded records that investigators say were kept by Mr. Olmert's secretary.

Newspapers freed from a gag order on the investigation splashed lengthy coverage of an affair that broke as Israelis celebrated the 60th anniversary of the state's founding – although some questioned the strength of prosecutors' case after series of other inquiries that failed to indict the premier.

“It is doubtful Olmert can survive,” wrote Nahum Barnea, a senior columnist for Yedioth Ahronoth. “If not because of the Talansky affair, ... then because of the cumulative effect of all the ongoing investigations against him.”
 
As I said earlier; they will have to drag him kicking and screaming from office with his hands clasped firmly to his desk.  That's not really a problem considering it looks as though dragging him out office is exactly what Olmert's opponents, which is pretty much all of Israel these days, have in store for him.  If Ehud Olmert had an ounce of character he would resign immediately over the mounting accusations of bribery and emergency hearings.  Israel's appeasement of Palestinian monsters could soon be coming to an end.
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