Today, Israeli police issued a recommendation to the State Attorney’s Office that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert be indicted on corruption charges dating to his tenure as Minister of Industry and Trade in 2003-2006. This is the third such recommendation made against Olmert, and it seems likely that some or all of these will turn into full-fledged indictments in the coming weeks.

This is really the most phenomenal implosion in Israel’s political history. A leader who gave Israel two wars of ambiguous result, who charmed no one, and who was so unpopular that he was completely absent from his own party’s election campaign, now faces a serious possibility of jail time to boot. Tzipi Livni did all she could to distance herself from Olmert, with the campaign posters showing pictures of her and Ariel Sharon only. With reports that Labor’s Ehud Barak has flip-flopped and is now interested in joining a Netanyahu-led government, Livni could find herself leading the only major party in the opposition. Perhaps that’s her best hope of rebuilding her party. But as I’ve pointed out before, it may be the end of her brief political stardom as well.