Lets hope that the charge sheet against Margalit Tzanani contains a lot of errors. Not only is she the darling of many Israelis who remember her fondly in her youth, but if there is any truth to the accusations against her, then the underworld has infiltrated every nook and cranny of Israeli society. Scandals like this one usually prompt an outcry from close friends. Its not possible. I know her like I know the back of my hand. She would never do something like this. All she cared about was making her fans happy. What follows are accusations that the police are stupid. How can they not get it? This is ethnic persecution! But the police did not set out to trap Margol, just as they never set out to trap countless suspects before her. The arm of the law did not seek out Margalit Tzanani. Instead, police stumbled across her case almost by accident. The crimes described in the charge sheet -- which have yet to be proved -- show that Tzanani was not a crime boss. Still, she wasnt an unsuspecting victim of criminal machinations in the underworld. Apparently, she was senior officer in that world. The state prosecutor does not have the option of closing this file with a relatively light plea bargain. Yet her punishment -- and she must be presumed innocent until proven guilty -- is not the most disturbing aspect of the indictment. The charge sheets reconstruction of the underworlds modes and methods is chilling: The way it gains control of innocents as well as institutions and organizations; how it destroys public trust in every enterprise it gets its hands on. How it forces its criminality upon terrified bystanders. Clearly, its not just the reputation of A Star Is Born (the Israeli version of "American Idol") that has been tarnished. A whole slew of popular entertainments and pastimes can no longer be enjoyed in good faith. The battle between light and darkness, between law-abiding citizens and criminals, does not end with a single successful police probe. It is a daily, perpetual struggle. Once the government gets its hands on NIS 190 billion in under-the-table money circulating through Israel, while police catch the culprits and throw them in prison for many years, then the struggle will be near its end. Public relations, education and psychology, which have become mantras in the West, are no substitute for harsh punishments. If Israel does not contain the fires of violence, extortion and threats in our society, the underworld is liable to burn down our public structure from the rafters to its very foundation. The Margol scandal is just one link in a chain of incidents. At this stage she is still presumed innocent. Just dont try to feed us the nonsense that someone in the government is out to get her. There was no malicious intent behind Tzananis unexpected arrest.
