After Olmert: step forward ‘Mrs Clean’?

It was entirely understandable that ordinary Israelis heaved a heartfelt sigh of relief when their beleaguered PM Ehud Olmert announced yesterday that he would be stepping down in September. For months he has been a dead man walking, submerged by a flood of corruption allegations that calculated leaks from investigators suggested were all too believable.

Vain, greedy, vindictive, Olmert has become a national embarrassment, so tainted even the Bush administration preferred to deal with him at arm's length. How his ignominious departure will affect the increasingly moribund Middle East peace process will not become clear until the leading candidates to replace him show their hand.

Realistically, there is no hope of achieving Bush's wildly optimistic target of a Israeli-Palestinian settlement by the end of 2008. That is not entirely Olmert's fault: he worked

hard to build a relationship with Mahmoud Abbas, but the Palestinian president, hounded by Hamas, has always been too weak to deliver the concessions required.

With polls suggesting that most Israelis are still willing to give peace a chance, a leadership bid from Tzipi Livni, the tough, able and fiercely ambitious foreign minister, is definitely on the cards. Although she is no dove where the Palestinians are concerned, Livni - 'Mrs Clean' to the media - is well liked by a public sick of political scandals (unsurprisingly, Olmert can't stand her and might try to scupper her hopes).

Her principal challenger could be the hawkish Shaul Mofaz, former head of the armed forces and, to judge by recent comments, an enthusiastic supporter of an Israeli attack on Iran's controversial nuclear installations. Intriguingly, the polls also indicate growing support for another stalwart of the hardline right, Binyamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu in the event that yet another political stalemate produces a general election next year.