Ehud Olmert

Political Figure

Ehud Olmert was sworn in as the elected prime minister of Israel on 4 May 2006. Olmert is the leader of Israel's Kadima party, which won national elections on 28 March 2006. Olmert was first elected to the Knesset in 1973, at the young age of 28. His career in government service included a decade as the mayor of Jerusalem, from 1993 through 2003. He joined the cabinet of Ariel Sharon as deputy prime minister in 2003 and later became minister of communications and finance. A longtime member of the conservative Likud party, Olmert joined Sharon in the founding of a new centrist party, Kadima, late in 2005. When Sharon suffered a debilitating stroke on 4 January 2006, Olmert became Israel's acting prime minister. In elections ten weeks later, Kadima won 28 seats in the Knesset and the right to form the next Israeli government.

Extra credit: Olmert announced in October 2007 that he had prostate cancer. Olmert called the cancer "a microscopic growth, with no metastization which can be removed by a short surgical procedure," and said that he would stay in office... Olmert has a law degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem... In April of 2006 the Israeli cabinet declared Sharon "permanently incapacitated," moving Olmert from acting prime mininister to prime minister -- although by that time, he had already been made prime minister-elect by Kadima's victory in the March elections.