So this is the new story:

“According to the suspicions, during his tenure as Jerusalem mayor and trade and industry minister, Olmert would seek duplicate funding for his trips abroad from public bodies, including from the state, with each of them requested to fund the same trip,” the statement said.

Police claim that his office’s travel agency would then send separate receipts to the unsuspecting organizations. In this way, according to the allegations, the agency would fraudulently obtain an excess amount of money for each one of Olmert’s trips.

So if I get this right, what he actually is alleged of doing is stealing from agencies such as “AKIM, a charity geared towards aiding mentally disabled children; ALEH, a group that cares for physically challenged children; Yad Vashem; the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and American Friends of the IDF.”

There is a certain nightmarish quality to the fact that this person is still in office. He should have gone after the incredible fiasco of the Lebanon war in the summer of 2006. It’s worrying that people are apathetic and not out on the streets clamoring for his resignation.

Another thought: You know, when Olmert announced that there would be primaries for his Kadima party, I actually thought he was doing the noble thing and stepping down, and doing it in a responsible manner so as not to throw his party into chaos.

Now I keep hearing that he actually plans to run in the primaries. Maybe I need my hearing checked.