Newsmaker

Ehud Olmert close to succeed PM Sharon

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-12 08:29

JERUSALEM- Veteran Israeli politician Ehud Olmert is the closest thing to the successor Prime Minister Ariel Sharon never groomed.

Olmert, named interim prime minister last week after the 77-year-old leader was felled by a massive stroke, was the cabinet member most identified with Sharon's about-face plan, supported by most Israelis, to pull out of the Gaza Strip.

Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert speaks to the media in Jerusalem January 8, 2006. Speaking to reporters, Olmert said: "I pray with all the people of Israel that my tenure as the acting prime minister will be short." [Reuters]

An opinion poll published on Wednesday in Haaretz newspaper showed continued strong public support for Sharon's new centrist Kadima party if Olmert, his 60-year-old deputy, leads it into a March 28 general election surveys predict it will win easily.

Olmert scored high in the latest poll on the question of credibilility and suitability to fill Sharon's shoes as prime minister, besting right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud party and Labour leader Amir Peretz.

Charisma has nothing to do with it: Olmert may have hitched his wagon to Sharon years ago but he has suffered from the former general's commanding presence and has never been seen as a prime candidate for Israel's top political office.

"Olmert has always been a sidekick. In the wings," political commentator Yossi Verter wrote in the Haaretz newspaper.

As prime minister, Sharon sought advice mainly from his "Ranch Forum", a clutch of long-time personal friends and advisers that would convene at the weekend at his homestead in southern Israel. Olmert was not among them.

"In these grim circumstances, with the position falling into (Olmert's) lap the way it has, the results in the next three months will be his test. The test of his life," Verter wrote.

A career politician in a country where ex-military men have traditionally been high-flyers, Olmert was elected to his first seat in Israel's parliament in 1973 at the age of 28.

After holding a series of cabinet posts, he toppled Jerusalem's veteran mayor, Teddy Kollek, in 1993, claiming city hall for the right-wing Likud for the first time. He served 10 years, earning a reputation as a competent administrator.

Since joining the current government in 2003, four years after losing a Likud leadership fight to Sharon, Olmert has often floated diplomatic initiatives in the media before the prime minister formally adopted them.

He has appeared often, speaking in good English, on foreign television channels to expound Israeli government policy.