Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni said Saturday that former prime minister Ehud Olmert was “unfit” to return to political life due to his past criminal actions.
Livni, speaking to Hadashot TV news, said that even if Presiden Reuven Rivlin were to erase the “moral turpitude” clause from Olmert’s conviction — a designation that prevents a convict from holding positions of public office — Olmert must not return to public life.
“He was a prime minister who did good things as well as problematic things, including criminal things,” Livni, who served as foreign minister under Olmert, said. “The debate on the future of the State of Israel must be waged between untarnished people.”
Olmert has been giving interviews to coincide with the publication of his autobiography, “In Person,” in which he insists there was a conspiracy to oust him as prime minister that also involved the state prosecution from the moment he took office. He also returned to the public eye in the past week after Israel officially confirmed that it had carried out a 2007 airstrike on a Syrian nuclear reactor — when he served as prime minster.
But the reveal led to intense bickering between Israeli intelligence and political leaders over credit for the strike, which led Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman to say he regretted authorizing its publication.
