The decision will be made any moment now...

Whether or not the prime minister was given a significant discount when he purchased his home on Cremieux Street, whether or not any such discount was given as a bribe in return for his expediting building permits from the Jerusalem municipality, and whether or not the investigation results in an indictment - it is difficult to come to terms with the amount of time that elapses between each decision by the investigators, the prosecutors and the comptrollers.

The attorney general's decision to order a criminal probe into the house on Cremieux Street has upset even police investigators, because the time that has passed, the fact that the state comptroller has already investigated the case exhaustively and the fact that all the parties have already offered their explanations will all combine to undermine the police investigation. Had the suspicions in the case been given to the police immediately after they emerged, the process would have been more reasonable, but there is still no guarantee that it would have been quick. Justice, at this pace, is not justice.

The cases involving the prime minister are not complicated. If Ehud Olmert made illegal political appointments while serving as minister of industry and trade, or if he favored a particular entrepreneur because he was recommended by his friend, attorney Uri Messer, sufficient time has passed in order to make a decision one way or the other. Even regarding the sale of Bank Leumi, which is apparently a more complicated case, since some of those involved are abroad, every week brings new promises that State Prosecutor Eran Shendar will make his decision any minute now. Anticipation of his decision has featured prominently in the headlines for months.

Not a single moment of Olmert's term has passed without him being a suspect in some case or another, and he is not the first prime minister to have held office while under investigation. If this proves that senior officials are given the same treatment as ordinary citizens, then this is proof that ordinary citizens also suffer intolerable delays of justice. In ordinary cases, however, the claim is that these delays stem from a lack of investigators, prosecutors and judges. One cannot make that claim about the prime minister; the entire system has been mobilized to probe his cases.

These delays do not only undermine justice and the law; they also turn the sitting prime minister's every diplomatic and administrative decision into one potentially tainted by ulterior motives. Whether Olmert decides to order a cross-border attack or divide Jerusalem, there will always be someone who will link the decision with his desire to divert attention from his legal troubles. Moreover, the prime minister's term in office is measured anew every morning according to the pace at which the investigations are conducted. The frequent forecasts of his tenure coming to an abrupt end strip him of the strength he needs to do his job. The demand that he resign because of the investigations is an intolerable slap in the face of natural justice, and it encourages people to file complaints with the police as a means of replacing ministers and heads of state.

The only possible conclusion is that heavy responsibility for the proper management of the state falls on the shoulders of the law enforcement agencies, and they must recognize that time is a determining factor in their work. Perhaps the time has come to select an outsider as state prosecutor - someone who will introduce new norms of work into the prosecution.