[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:
The Hebrew edition of Haaretz today includes an item:
www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/982585.html
"Focusing the investigation against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on suspicion
he received funds in 2005 may enable Olmert to claim that it was permissible
for him to receive them. The reason is that that same year was not an
election year when there was no limit on the collection of contributions by
party candidates."

The article goes on to note that Shimon Peres received $100,000 from Bruce
Rapaport and $120,000 from Daniel Abrams and $100,000 from Chaim Saban
immediately before campaign contribution limits went into effect for Labor
Party primaries restrictions and while it was criticized by the State
Comptroller in his November 2006 report, Peres faced no legal consequences.]

Police suspect money transferred to PM outside campaign season
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 08:19 12/05/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/982423.html

The investigation into Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's alleged illegal receipt
of hundreds of thousands of dollars from American businessman and
fund-raiser Morris Talansky is currently focused on Olmert's tenure as
industry and trade minister in the Sharon government - not on the mayoral
election campaigns in which Olmert participated, the funding for which he
said he had received from Talansky, sources involved in the probe told
Haaretz.

Haaretz has also learned, however, that the debts of an organization that
campaigned for Olmert's election as mayor of Jerusalem were covered out of
funds received from Talansky.

Olmert said Friday that the investigation dealt with donations to the 1999
and 2002 campaigns for the Jerusalem mayoralty and the Likud primary.

The prime minister further said the funds were also intended to cover
losses. He said he had met Talansky 20 years ago and acknowledged receiving
funds from him, saying they were campaign contributions when he twice ran
for mayor of Jerusalem and that he never kept any money for himself or took
bribes.

However, the sources said investigators were primarily gathering
incriminating evidence about Olmert's activities circa 2005.

"The investigators are currently focusing on reinforcing suspicions that are
relatively easy to verify," one of the sources said. "They are dealing with
the period during which it is possible to unearth findings that will
strengthen the suspicions against Olmert. By virtue of these things, it is
easier to deal with and to investigate suspicions related to a more recent
period than to suspicions related to something that happened 15 years ago,
when the relationship between Olmert and Talansky began."

The sources said the evidence unearthed so far all points in the same
direction.

"During the short period being probed so far, the investigators managed to
arrange a cross-checking of sources," said the person involved in the probe.
"There are documents, there's Talansky's testimony, there's [attorney Uri]
Messer's testimony - all these findings reinforce the credibility of the
other."

A law-enforcement official, who is familiar with Olmert's testimony and the
investigators' work, indicated that the prime minister may be attempting to
mislead the public.

"There's no doubt that Olmert is trying to pull the investigation in a
certain direction, of collecting funds for elections," the official said.
"But in contrast to the impression Olmert is trying to create, the
investigation team is currently focusing precisely on the period when there
were no elections, and there was no apparent justification for collecting
funds for an election campaign."

The official said police suspect Olmert of receiving envelopes of cash but
don't know what happened to the money. Talansky told Channel 10 Sunday that
he had no idea whether the money he gave Olmert went into his own pocket -
which Olmert denied in a televised address Thursday night - or was used for
political campaigns (see above video). Talansky said he had no idea the
donations were illegal and that he had no intention of doing business in
Israel.

"At present, the investigation is clearly focusing on the period when Olmert
served as the minister of industry, trade and labor," the official said,
adding that investigators may yet expand their probe to cover the period
during which Talansky raised funds for Olmert's various election campaigns.
"The investigators have solid information regarding envelopes of cash that
were handed over to Olmert, and there is no information regarding the fate
of that money."

Meanwhile, investigators resumed looking into the allegations Sunday, for
the first time since the details of the case were reported in the local
press after Independence Day on Thursday. The investigators tried to lower
their profile and shake off the media Sunday. The primary suspects - Olmert,
Messer and Olmert's former bureau chief Shula Zaken - were not questioned
Sunday.