We don't want criminals in government

How do you rewrite history? Like this: "12 years after Aryeh Deri had to quit politics, he is expected to return to the helm of the party where his career began." Had to quit? For those of you who have forgotten, Deri went to prison for corruption. As elections loom, many Center-Left voters who don't support Meretz or Labor are hoping for the return of the three criminals: Deri, Haim Ramon (convicted of forcibly kissing a female soldier) and Ehud Olmert (convicted of breach of trust). The Likud isn't far behind, displaying their prodigal son Tzachi Hanegbi (convicted of perjury).

The current election process, which started out with a bang, is now under a heavy cloud. As parents, we expect our education system to impart certain basic principles, such as not hiring convicted felons as teachers. When we use public transportation we expect the drivers of our buses and taxis not to be offenders. Lawyers and public officials cannot practice if they have a criminal record, and certain offenses also bar individuals from serving on city councils. But if a criminal wants to serve in Israel's parliament — well, that's a different story.

The ongoing debate surrounding Deri's return to the leadership of Shas has mainly revolved around the implications on current party leader Eli Yishai's political future, but no one has given a second thought to the fact that Deri is a criminal, convicted of one count of bribery and three counts of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. The judge that sent him to prison wrote in the verdict that "this was not a single misstep committed by a lone youngster who was recently exposed to the perks of public life. This was someone who maintained an ongoing lifestyle that rested on a foundation of bribery."

Olmert, the first Israeli prime minister to be convicted of a crime, is still awaiting a verdict in yet another ongoing corruption trial against him, but he has nonetheless become the messiah for Center-Left voters. He may have been an excellent prime minister, but that doesn't matter. Have we completely lost our minds? "We must be careful not to view breach of trust as a technical offense. Conflict of interest is governmental corruption," the president of the Jerusalem District Court said about Olmert at the conclusion of his last trial. Is this what we want our children to be learning in civics class?

And Ramon, a renaissance man, was convicted of committing an indecent act without consent and forced to pay the victim a 15,000 shekel fine and perform community service. Ramon, who tried to present himself as the victim, will be a determining figure in the upcoming election, and he is trying to convince his buddy Olmert to join forces with him.

The ruling party also has its criminals. The prodigal son, Hanegbi, who defected to the now-crumbling Kadima and is now making his way back to Likud, was convicted two years ago of perjuring himself before the central elections committee regarding his role in the publication of a Likud pamphlet. Hanegbi will be vying for a seat on the Likud list in the upcoming primaries, and it seems that Likud voters will not be taking his conviction into consideration. At most, they may consider his defection from the party as the original sin.

So everyone is talking about the system of government and the elections now, but why isn't anyone proposing a law that will prevent convicted criminals from becoming elected officials? Are these the people that we want as examples for our children? In the meantime, the country is aghast at the fact that more than 200 classes failed the end-of-year standardized tests due to unprecedented cheating. Keep in mind that the cheating and the corruption begin in the Knesset. Unless we do something, this corruption will continue to trickle down until it seeps into our children's classrooms.

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