These are crucial days for Ehud Olmert. In the uncomfortable interregnum forced upon Israel by the incapacitating illness of Ariel Sharon, the prime minister’s deputy and right-hand man has to persuade the public he is capable of assuming the mantle of his patron in the longer term.

In less than a week as acting prime minister, Mr Olmert has adopted a tone of sober statesmanship in the face of increasingly gloomy medical bulletins from Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital. The performance has impressed even those Israelis who once dismissed the former Jerusalem mayor as a slick and argumentative opportunist.