Suffering from cancer, Israel’s ex-PM has finally been indicted. The charges are weak: victimless fraud (donors do not object to double-billing), technically illegal but commonplace reimbursement of his travel expenses by private donors, and foreign funding for his decade-old electoral campaign.
The Israeli establishment does not need a precedent set of criminal punishment for illegal funding of elections, so those charges will be downplayed.
Given the Supreme Court’s aggressive behavior toward Olmert, sentencing is not impossible and technically cannot be light. The situation is unpredictable, but the court would not like the embarrassment of an ex-PM dying in prison.
