Keep fighting corruption
For a brief moment I felt like stopping my car right there on the side of the highway. I just couldn't believe my ears. I heard the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beytenu), saying on Israel Radio that the only reason Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein and Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino released details of a massive corruption scandal implicating key Yisrael Beytenu figures was to block Avigdor Lieberman's path to the prime minister's seat. Who? Danino, who has already been accused of investigating former minister Haim Ramon solely for the purpose of unseating former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert? Or of trying to topple Olmert himself?
But the height of Rotem's ridiculous argument was his assertion that Weinstein, the same attorney-general who did away with the years-long corruption investigation against Lieberman, was now trying to undermine Yisrael Beytenu's prospects ahead of the election. But these remarks increased Rotem's chances of keeping his spot on the party list for the next Knesset.
The investigation was conducted clandestinely, but properly. Danino did not inform the relevant minister -- Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch of Yisrael Beytenu -- for his own good. He wanted to spare Aharonovitch the embarrassment among his colleagues. But the time came when it was no longer possible to keep the sprawling investigation under wraps. Details were beginning to leak. The investigation encompasses a record number of suspects and a wide range of improper money trails: From the government to public institutions, and from public institutions to the party and to individual party members. Dirty money of all kinds.
The surprising thing is that the individuals involved were not deterred by other corruption scandals. They (allegedly) committed the crimes they are suspected of at the height of the Olmert affair (the former prime minister was sentenced to six years in prison for various graft crimes, pending appeal), while former Finance Minister Abraham Hirschson was still serving a five-year prison sentence for corruption, and former Judge Dan Cohen was being prosecuted for corruption (and ultimately sentenced to six years in prison). Always the same greed, always the same crimes. But this time there was one difference: No incumbent ministers were involved. This time the ministers were careful. The suspicions only reached one level below, with Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirshenbaum at the highest rank.
Now we must let the investigation take its course. Anyone who was falsely suspected will be cleared. At the current stage, it would be wise to keep all suspects away from the centers of power. In order for justice to be done, or at least for the appearance of justice being done.
The war between the sons of light and the sons of darkness and corruption never ends, but the flames taper off for a few years every so often to a bearable level. What emerged this week is that Israel has yet to limit its corruption to a reasonable level. But as long as the prosecution and the police are on the right side of the war, that day will certainly come.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו