For a man facing yet another round of police questioning this week, as well as the prospect of a failing peace process, Ehud Olmert was remarkably relaxed in his office yesterday.

The Israeli Prime Minister drew solace from the careers of two of his mentors, Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi, who have trodden this difficult path before him.

“I look at the manner in which my friends Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi were in a similar situation. They were accused in similar ways, one of trading contributions for titles and one for trying to bribe a judge. They were cleared entirely and didn’t stop taking care of the State,” he said.

Fraud investigators are to question Mr Olmert on Friday, while the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by his lawyers yesterday to block a deposition from an American Jewish businessman alleged to have handed him $500,000 (£250,000) in cash, much of it stuffed into envelopes.

Mr Olmert — who has pledged to resign if indicted — remained philosophical in spite of the difficulties, compounded by his prostate cancer.

“You know when you get into this job that you’re not going to have fun,” he said. “You’re going to have tough months and difficult years.” He is a great admirer of Mr Blair, who reinvented himself as the international community’s envoy in the Middle East last year. Despite their friendship he has doubts about Mr Blair’s plans to prepare the Palestinians for statehood by rebuilding their economy, crippled by Israeli occupation and internal corruption.

“He really invested himself in this effort to try and build up an infrastructure for the Palestinians,” Mr Olmert said. “I don’t know how rapidly the Palestinians will be prepared to meet this challenge. But I think that his general approach is positive.”

Mr Olmert is proud of his friends in high places, recalling how George Bush cycled around the Israeli Prime Minister’s house “like an excited child” last week when he gave him a custom-made mountain bike during Israel’s 60th birthday celebrations.

He is a man obsessed with sports and can always call on his friend Avram Grant, the Israeli manager of Chelsea, to blow off steam, as well as chewing over the lonely challenges of leadership. “I speak to him quite often; I’m very impressed by his coolness and his ability to face the pressure that comes with the job. We compare notes sometimes: how it is to deal with these issues, as Prime Minister; how it is to deal with the pressure when a head coach [has] 50,000 fans who are expressing their opinion momentarily, without waiting, just as it happens, and you are just by yourself.” Mr Olmert insisted that he would stay focused on the peace talks he is conducting behind closed doors with Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian administration in the West Bank. He values “human contact” as the key to cementing good policy.

Mr Abbas, though, has threatened to step down in six months if no progress is made, according to a left-wing Israeli MP who met the Palestinian leader. That would leave Mr Olmert with no partner with whom to continue his private meetings.

“I prefer not to think about it in these terms. I hope he will not step down and I hope that in six months we will be in a different place altogether,” he said. “I still think that the basic distance between what I and [Mr Abbas] exchanged at the very initial stage was bridgeable.” He puts little hope in Marwan Barghouti, the younger Fatah leader with a large street following, who many believe is the only man who could unite Mr Abbas’s secular Fatah and Islamist Hamas in Gaza. Mr Barghouti is currently in an Israeli jail for masterminding deadly attacks on Israel at the height of the intifada.

“Imagine that Barghouti is released tomorrow. Is there a way for him to prove that he’s not a collaborator with the Israelis? There’s only one way: to be more extreme than the present leadership,” he said.

To escape his woes, Mr Olmert planned to relax by watching Manchester United play Chelsea in the Champions League final. But in a country where very little is straight forward, even this was proving a dilemma for the lifelong United fan: did he want his team or his friend Avram’s to win?

Under suspicion

— As Trade and Industry Minister he was suspected of abusing his position and appointing cronies to important positions

— He is now being investigated for allegedly receiving $500,000 in bribes from US businessman Morris Talansky in return for granting special favours to Mr Talansky’s business associates

— Accused of buying house in desirable part of Jerusalem at below market value and granting benefits to firm which brokered the deal. Charges dropped

— As Finance Minister he was accused of trying to steer a privatisation tender for Bank Leumi towards business associate. Charges dropped

Source: Times database

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