"The Economist"
"Bad smells and fresh air - Israel"
March 10, 2007
There has been a ridiculous amount of talk about the corruption of Israeli government officials in the news over the past number of weeks. Everyone from the president, to the prime minister, to the police chief, to the minister of justice has come under fire for allegations ranging from rape to money laundering to falsification of testimony. It is, no doubt, because of this, that Israel has been slipping in the annual perceptions index kept up by Transparency International, "a Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog." Back in the 70s, then PM Yitzhak Rabin resigned just because of allegations that his wife had some money in (then-illegal) overseas bank accounts. Today an accusation like that would barely make the news, the article says. It goes on to question, "is the putrefaction really worsening or are more people just noticing the smell?" A little bit of both seems to be the verdict. One opinion is that as Israel has become "less ideological, idealist and egalitarian than its pioneering early days, politics has become more of a personal career and politicians abuse their positions more often." But at the same time that the army and the presidency have come into this new and scrupulous light, the coutrs and state comptroller have gained strength and the public is "no longer willing to excuse leaders for improper behavior."--personal or political. More Israeli women are reporting sexual harassment in the workplace, and issues are being given more publicity than ever before. The corruption, however, needs to be fought so as not to lower the country's moral standards. Recommendations from a former supreme court justice include giving the parliament's ethics committee the power to fine legislators who step out of line, or bar them from certain jobs and chairmanships. There would definitely be more constraints put on them than in other countries, but that could also be seen as a check to make sure they don't have too much power.
So Israel definitely has some dirty laundry-- but who doesn't. And then again, things like the Lewinsky scandal draw a lot of interest. I think at this point, since SO many officials have been brought up for corruption, and so much attention has been paid, something definitely needs to be done. The suggestion that constraints be placed on politicians is a good one, provided that it is actually enforced and executed in a reasonable way. It is within the reasonable expectations of the people to have a representative government that is moral and upstanding, and it is the duty of the courts to ensure that. While I do feel, as I have said in other posts, that this entire thing has become trivialized to a point of nausea, there is some definite action that needs to be taken here. A system needs to be set into motion that will sanction these actions, and prevent future acts of this type from recurring within the Knesset.
March 10, 2007
There has been a ridiculous amount of talk about the corruption of Israeli government officials in the news over the past number of weeks. Everyone from the president, to the prime minister, to the police chief, to the minister of justice has come under fire for allegations ranging from rape to money laundering to falsification of testimony. It is, no doubt, because of this, that Israel has been slipping in the annual perceptions index kept up by Transparency International, "a Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog." Back in the 70s, then PM Yitzhak Rabin resigned just because of allegations that his wife had some money in (then-illegal) overseas bank accounts. Today an accusation like that would barely make the news, the article says. It goes on to question, "is the putrefaction really worsening or are more people just noticing the smell?" A little bit of both seems to be the verdict. One opinion is that as Israel has become "less ideological, idealist and egalitarian than its pioneering early days, politics has become more of a personal career and politicians abuse their positions more often." But at the same time that the army and the presidency have come into this new and scrupulous light, the coutrs and state comptroller have gained strength and the public is "no longer willing to excuse leaders for improper behavior."--personal or political. More Israeli women are reporting sexual harassment in the workplace, and issues are being given more publicity than ever before. The corruption, however, needs to be fought so as not to lower the country's moral standards. Recommendations from a former supreme court justice include giving the parliament's ethics committee the power to fine legislators who step out of line, or bar them from certain jobs and chairmanships. There would definitely be more constraints put on them than in other countries, but that could also be seen as a check to make sure they don't have too much power.
So Israel definitely has some dirty laundry-- but who doesn't. And then again, things like the Lewinsky scandal draw a lot of interest. I think at this point, since SO many officials have been brought up for corruption, and so much attention has been paid, something definitely needs to be done. The suggestion that constraints be placed on politicians is a good one, provided that it is actually enforced and executed in a reasonable way. It is within the reasonable expectations of the people to have a representative government that is moral and upstanding, and it is the duty of the courts to ensure that. While I do feel, as I have said in other posts, that this entire thing has become trivialized to a point of nausea, there is some definite action that needs to be taken here. A system needs to be set into motion that will sanction these actions, and prevent future acts of this type from recurring within the Knesset.
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