It appears increasingly likely that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be facing criminal charges for his alleged illegal activities, some relating to cash gifts from the state’s star witness, Moshe Talansky.

Police posed some difficult questions to the prime minister during his Friday questioning session, his second, but admit they did not have ample time to address all the issues since Mr. Olmert told investigators in advance he can only allocate one hour for the questioning session due to his busy schedule.

Olmert was asked to explain why the campaign donations from Talansky were always made in the form of cash, and why the amounts were not found recorded anywhere. He was asked other questions as well, all pointing to the fact that huge sums of monies were given to him that were not all used to cover campaign expenses and/or party debts as he has been claiming.

Another witness, Uri Messer, also told police that he placed envelopes of cash in a safe and routinely gave Olmert quantities of cash as he requested.

In statements appearing in the media attributed to Talansky, he told police investigators that Olmert has been a disappointment from an ideological standpoint, prompting him to sing verses from the popular Jabotinsky Revisionist song “Shtei Gadot La’Yarden” (Two Sides of the Jordan), a song that was synonymous with the Irgun Tzvai Leumi and Betar.

Talansky told police that at one point, Olmert truly became a different person, stating that on at least one occasion, he told him “just leave the envelope and leave”.

Talansky according to some reports not only “spoke with police but sang,” showing the star witness in the state’s building case against the prime minister appears increasingly anxious to cooperate, perhaps to save himself or perhaps out of anger, or a bit of both, but police are signaling that the evidence against Mr. Olmert is mounting and unofficial reports signal an indictment is most likely by summer’s end.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)