The taker of bribes, Ehud Olmert, was convicted twice in one week. First, Judge David Rozen sentenced him to six years in prison. The only thing left was the legal addendum -- the hearing about the plea bargain between the state and Olmert's former bureau chief Shula Zaken, in which she testified against her former boss in exchange for a plea bargain ensuring she spends only 11 month in prison. But those gathered in Rozen's courtroom on Thursday to hear the closing arguments from prosecuting attorney Yonatan Tadmor and defense attorney Ofer Bartal were confronted with the most stirring event of all -- Zaken opened her mouth and began talking. The highlight was when she described in detail how she arranged, under directives from Olmert, the meeting in which Shmuel Dechner gave half a million shekels to Olmert's brother, Yossi. If this is true -- Olmert's chances of winning an appeal are slim to none. In her hand she held a note, from which she read a measured statement. Her back was to the crowd as she faced the judge, and then the change occurred. The facts that she had kept to herself for many long years emerged from her like the eruption of a volcano, yet she was in complete control throughout. Rozen's summary was apt: A boil [on society]; bribery, breach of public trust. But Zaken's testimony clearly illustrated how the cash flowed from Shmuel Dechner to Zaken, and from her to Olmert, and how he used the money to buy suits, and that he knew -- and how -- about the Rishon Tours plane tickets. It is possible that due to the considerable length of time she held the tape recordings of Olmert and his attorney Navot Tel-Zur in her possession, she failed to realize how explosive they truly were. She ignored the tapes until her attorney, Bartal, asked to listen to them and understood that they would change the tide in her favor. Justice arrived on the thread of a hair. Rozen asked "Where did she keep the tapes-" Bartal replied: "Everything was [recorded] by phone, iPhone." Rozen, taken aback at the thought, then asked: "And what if the phone had been lost-" Justice would have been lost along with it. Zaken's 40 minutes of testimony destroyed the imaginary lines of defense put forth by Olmert and his cohorts. Some 24 hours earlier they had take control of much of the media and gave the impression that his appeal hearing would wipe the conviction off the books and nullify his punishment. They slandered his rivals and mocked the sentence, and added to their propaganda machine some retired judges, who jealous of their former colleague Rozen questioned Rozen's ruling. Olmert's spin, however, crashed against the wall when Zaken clearly recounted how the crime machine operated. Olmert and his cohort twice grumbled toward Israel Hayom, which had declared that Zaken's threat to testify against him was akin to the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem; and that if she ever took the witness stand it would be like Olmert's own personal Tisha B'av (the fast to commemorate the destruction of the Temple). They denigrated this assessment. On Thursday they were silenced. The gloomy forecast materialized. The vast majority of Israelis understands much better than in the past that the investigations against Olmert cleansed a threatening, dangerous and corrupting boil -- a true infestation on the body of Israeli society. On Thursday, following the Zaken testimony, Israelis understood this even better. Her respectful and remorseful tone at the hearing did not erase her past. Rozen emphasized that were it not for his obligation to uphold the plea bargain he would hit her with a five year prison sentence. "She is a facilitator of crime," he stated, and indeed many questions still remain about her personal initiatives in the criminal realm, primarily those she undertook while serving for Olmert. I met her dozens of years ago. Yesterday we stood facing one another like two strangers, mostly filled with memories of the man we loved. From the day the Olmert investigations began I knew, as did others, that she would lie on the fence for him. But I dolefully wondered what her life would have looked like had her first employer, Tzvi Tal, offered her a job at the law office of Dan Meridor and Yaakov Nehushtan, situated a mere hundreds of meters from Olmert's office. Perhaps today she would have a Jerusalem Prize on her shelf instead.
