Jerusalem - The already tenuous Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations are facing yet another uncertainty. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's political future is once again being called into question, with a new police investigation into alleged corruption plaguing the veteran Israeli politician.
Olmert is suspected of "illegally" taking hundreds of thousands of dollars, much of it in cash, from a US businessman for many years before he became prime minister in March 2006.
Police are investigating whether the hundreds of thousands of dollars were illegal election donations, or flat-out bribes.
They first questioned Olmert over the suspicions last Friday. After a week of wild media speculation, a Jerusalem court partially lifted a gag order imposed on the details of the investigation late Thursday.
"The champion of survivors," as Israel's Channel 10 has dubbed Olmert, has pulled through four previous investigations into alleged corruption and favouritism. He also survived two harshly critical reports by a commission of inquiry into Israel's summer 2006 war with Lebanon's Hezbollah, the final one just this January.
But will the Israeli premier survive this new affair too?
According to Israeli media - who have written him off prematurely before - the odds are against him. They are quoting "law enforcement sources" as speaking of a "high probability" that this police investigation will materialize into an indictment against Olmert.
Olmert told an impromptu news conference, called almost immediately after the gag order was lifted, that if this happens, he will resign.
He did not deny receiving the hundreds of thousands of dollars from Morris Talansky, a Jewish businessman and fundraiser from Long Island, who collected the money from unknown Jewish donors in the US. But he said it was all used to cover the expenses of four different election campaigns - when he ran for mayor of Jerusalem in 1993 and 1998, and in primaries of his former Likud party in 1998 and 2002.
Police say Olmert received the money when he was mayor of Jerusalem between 1993 and 2003, and trade and industry minister between 2003 and 2006.
He explained the time gap by saying the donations were also used retroactively, to cover debts caused by the election campaigns.
"I look into the eyes of each and every one of you and say: I have never taken bribes. I have never taken a penny into my own pocket," an unblinking Olmert said, looking straight into news cameras.
"I was chosen by you, the citizens of Israel, to stand at the head of the government and I do not intend to shake off my responsibility," he said. But he added: "If the attorney general decides on an indictment against me, I will resign from my post. I hope and believe we won't reach that stage."
Cleverly passing on responsibility to the lawyer who managed his finances, Olmert said: "The donations that were raised on my behalf were passed on to Attorney Uri Messer, who handled the financial affairs related to the relevant elections I was a candidate in.
"I have no doubt that Attorney Messer managed the money according to the best of his professional abilities, and in accordance with the limitations stated in the law."
Police however are now investigating a number of questions: If the funds were all "kosher" election campaign donations, why did Olmert receive much of it in cash, some of it reportedly in envelopes during the many times he, his lawyer Messer and his office manager Shula Zaken met fundraiser Talansky in Israel or abroad?
What did Olmert do with the money - did he indeed use it only for his election campaigns, as he insists, or did he pocket some of it?
Who are the donors behind the money? Were they neutral individuals, or people with interests in fields over which Olmert had influence as a mayor and senior minister? This could indicate a possible quid pro quo.
Whatever the answers, the funds raised appear to have been more than allowed under Israeli law, and also to not have been properly documented and reported.
The question is whether Olmert and his lawyers will be able to shake off the affair as (inadvertent) campaign finance violations, or whether he will be charged with bribery. A decision about a possible indictment is expected in several months.
Until then, more uncertainty about Israel's political future, as well as the peace negotiations as they approach a crucial end-of-year deadline, seems certain.
