JERUSALEM—Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who claimed to be on the cusp of a historic peace deal with the Palestinians just a few years ago, now is set to become the first Israeli leader to go to prison after the Supreme Court upheld a bribery conviction against him Tuesday, Dec. 29.
The decision capped a seven-year legal saga that severely undermined the last serious round of peace talks and propelled hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to power.
In some ways, Tuesday’s decision was a success for Olmert. The five-judge panel dismissed the most serious bribery charge against him and reduced his original prison sentence from six years down to 18 months. He is set to report to prison on Feb. 15.
“A stone has been lifted from my heart,” a visibly relieved Olmert told reporters. “I said in the past, I was never offered and I never took a bribe. And I say that again today.”
But it nonetheless served as a reminder of what might have been had he managed to complete his term before the scandal forced him to step down in early 2009.
Olmert was a longtime fixture in Israel’s hawkish right wing when he began taking a dramatically more conciliatory line toward the Palestinians as deputy prime minister a decade ago. He played a leading role in Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
