Olmert Acknowledges Questionable Contributions

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Olmert of Israel yesterday admitted receiving regular contributions for years from a Jewish American businessman but denied any of the money constituted a bribe.

His statement came after an Israeli court partially lifted a nearly week-old gag order blocking the country's press from disclosing details of the case. They immediately reported that prosecutors were investigating whether the prime minister received tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from millionaire Morris Talansky of Long Island, N.Y.

"I look each and every one of you in the eye and say I have never received a bribe and I have never taken a penny for my own pocket," Mr. Olmert said at a brief news conference.

He vowed to resign if formally indicted by Attorney General Mazuz.

The investigation covers matters that date to Mr. Olmert's tenures as mayor of Jerusalem and minister of industry.

The prime minister was interrogated last week by investigators. That event, followed by the gag order issued by the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court, placed the normally raucous Israeli press in the strange position of analyzing the serious implications of accusations they couldn't specify.

The gag order began to weaken Tuesday when the New York Post identified the businessman involved in the alleged bribery as Mr. Talansky, who served as treasurer of Mr. Olmert's nonprofit New Jerusalem Foundation. The story enabled local Israeli press outlets to evade the gag order by reporting on the Post's report.

With the order now partially lifted by the same court that imposed it, the scandal seems destined to loom over President Bush's visit next week to Israel to help commemorate the state's 60th anniversary, which Israelis marked yesterday.

The prime minister acknowledged knowing Mr. Talansky and receiving donations from him for campaigns over the past two decades. Mr. Olmert, a career politician who now heads the Kadima Party, has been implicated in other corruption scandals but has never been formally charged.

He promised to cooperate fully with investigators. "I hope this storm will pass as quickly as it was ignited," he said.

Israel's Channel 10 news reported that Mr. Talansky had cooperated with Israeli investigators and detailed his role as a middle-man for illegal campaign contributions.

But Mr. Talansky, a frequent visitor to Israel who is in the country on vacation, told Israel's Channel 2 the charges were "totally baffling to me. It's Independence Day, and I don't think there should be any talk about politics."

Mr. Talansky told Channel 2 he was in Jerusalem to celebrate the recent Passover holiday with his children when there was a knock on his door at 6 a.m. on Wednesday.

"I went downstairs, and it was the national police," he said. "They asked me to come with them, and I obliged. I said what I know. Yes, I have known [Olmert] for 20 years."

He and Mr. Olmert were friends and frequently dined together during the prime minister's visits to New York, Mr. Talansky said.