With every passing hour, the list of names grew bigger. Each person arrested got his or her splashing headline. Virtually everyone in this long lineup was described as "close" to Yisrael Beytenu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman and Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirshenbaum. The reporting, whether you liked it or not, put Yisrael Beytenu in the spotlight. Many jaws dropped during the arraignment hearings at the Rishon Lezion courthouse. What is this all about? What made this corruption scheme possible? Although there are no indictments yet, the police do have a state's witness who is said to have the suspects on tape. The two words "Yisrael Beytenu" now have an entirely different meaning. No longer do they represent a party or a Knesset faction. Nor do they represent the great wave of immigrants who arrived here after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This pair of words no longer represent the leadership's attempt to integrate into Israeli society. Yisrael Beytenu will from now on be synonymous with a money-laundering scheme that helped create a de facto employment agency for party loyalists. Its party apparatus will forever be regarded as a stock exchange for unnamed tycoons. It is now anything but a party. To paraphrase Hillel the Elder, only after noting its other traits can Yisrael Beytenu qualify as a party, and only then can its mission be acknowledged. Back in the day, corrupt politicians would misuse taxpayer shekels to help their party. At some point, politicians became more sophisticated and started pocketing some of the funds. But this latest affair suggests a more brazen approach: The officials allegedly tapped the state coffers just so they could pad their bank accounts, without any investment is some larger cause. The alleged crimes in this latest affair were committed under the watch of Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein. He was apparently too busy closing the investigation against Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman and his alleged shell companies. Rather than prosecute Lieberman over his financial dealings, he took him to court over his misconduct as foreign minister. He said he tried to reward an ally who had given him privileged information (in the trial that followed, Lieberman was acquitted). On Thursday, I was mistakenly quoted as saying Lieberman would soon find himself embroiled in yet another affair. But that is false. I was simply noting that more details would emerge on his past conduct. Lieberman may not be implicated in this latest affair, but it appears that politicians have learned the wrong lessons. They may have concluded that anything goes and that this too shall pass. Perhaps they believe political malfeasance will forever go unpunished. Something is rotten in Yisrael Beytenu. This sounds like the crimes Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri committed as interior minister some 24 years ago. Yes, everyone is innocent until proved guilty. Law enforcement seems to be taking its time, and the police has yet to release the damning evidence they supposedly have on the detainees. One must withhold judgement against this or that individual until justice prevails but Yisrael Beytenu, a party turned business enterprise, has been unmasked.
