Olmert accusations foil peace

Nazir Megalli Jerusalem - Sona Adeek     Political analyst specialising in Israeli affairs, Nazir Megalli said that the corruption accusations which led to the resignation of Israel's former prime minister Ehud Olmert "were part of a plot intended to foil the peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians," insisting that all the accusations directed at Olmert were fabricated "at a time when the peace negotiations were just about reaching their conclusion." "The Israelis shot their former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin to halt the peace process, and then they attempted a moral assassination against Olmert through these stories of corruption which were all proved untrue by the court," said Magalli in an exclusive interview with Arabstoday. The political analyst expects that Olmert will run for the prime minister position again in the next elections to be held in Israel, and predicted he will have a great chance of success "as he was one of the most successful prime ministers Israel has seen." "It is true that he was the one who launched a war against Lebanon in 2006, and a war against the Gaza Strip in 2008, but despite these wars, Israel had a better reputation around the world as a country that seeks peace," he said. "I believe that [the centrist party] Kadima and the entire Israeli rightist powers will support the idea of Olmert's return as a prime minister, especially if he vows to run his government in the same responsible way he did during his earlier period," he added. Megalli expects that Olmert's lawsuit will open the door for demands in Israel that both ministers and prime ministers must be granted a judicial immunity as long as they are still serving in their posts, because the lawsuits filed against them could be fabricated purely to create a scandal that would force them to resign. President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas was reported to have expressed his congratulations in a phone call to Olmert on Tuesday, for being proved innocent of charges related to corruption and accepting bribes. Hayim Ramon, a leading figure in Olmert's Kadima Party, called for the setting up of an investigations commission to reveal who was behind the fabrication of the charges that led to Olmert's resignation.