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Politics

Cabinet hopeful resigns over lies

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 1, 2007

JERUSALEM - A candidate for Israel's Cabinet from a stridently anti-Arab party withdrew her nomination Wednesday after key parts of her resume turned out to be false.

Esterina Tartman blamed Israeli media for bringing her down and adding her to the growing list of Israeli politicians mired in scandal. Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Lieberman said he stood by her but respected her decision to withdraw.

The scandal erupted when two universities where Tartman claimed she earned advanced degrees said she was never enrolled, and a bank where she claimed to be a vice president said she held only a lower level post.

The affair is an embarrassment to Lieberman as he seeks to become an even bigger political player, expanding his current post as minister in charge of dealing with strategic threats against Israel.

Tartman, 49, was already a contentious figure as a protege of Lieberman, who has advocated stripping Israel's minority Arabs of their citizenship and transferring them to Palestinian rule. She called the appointment a month ago of Israel's first Arab Muslim Cabinet minister a "calamity" and supported a defeated bill that would have revoked the citizenship of anyone who did not sign a loyalty oath to the state.

But it was Lieberman's decision to nominate the ultranationalist as tourism minister that led to explosive disclosures about her qualifications.

On Wednesday, the two Israeli universities where she said she studied - Hebrew University and Bar-Ilan University - said she was never enrolled.

Media reports said Tartman claimed she was a vice president at Bank Yahav, a state employees bank. Bank Yahav said she actually held the lower level job of deputy department head.

Tartman also claims to have parachuted from military airplanes more than any woman in Israeli army history. The military wouldn't comment on Tartman's military past.

Several other high-level politicians have been involved in scandals lately.

Israel's attorney general has announced plans to indict President Moshe Katsav on charges of raping and sexually assaulting former female employees.

Authorities are investigating whether Olmert unsuccessfully steered bidding on a government bank in a supporter's direction when he was finance minister in 2005. And former Justice Minister Haim Ramon was recently convicted on sexual misconduct charges.

[Last modified March 1, 2007, 01:19:33]