By Shimshon Ben-Yosef
January 29, 2007
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We have become so accustomed to corruption and scandal in this country that it is natural to assume that an accusation of malfeasance is well-founded. Most of the criminals in high office get away with it, and are celebrated as bastions of righteousness by a fawning media that wants to sup at their trough, bask in the glamour of their celebrity.
So what if an unelected clique broke the law by engaging in negotiations with the PLO terrorists, inviting them back from exile, and handing over to them the heartland of the Land of Israel? So what if that led to thousands of dead and the dismembering of our country, as long as they enriched themselves and served their foreign benefactors?
So what if a man who pushed himself in to win a share of a Nobel Prize with a terrorist was found to have rewarded a Norwegian "diplomat" involved in his "nomination" with a rich cash prize from his publicly-funded "Center"? So what if the man involved in rehabilitating Arafat and his gang should be a shareholder in a Palestinian public utility?
And so what if that man, who in his first act after taking over from a slain Prime Minister, should appoint the Agency that shamefully allowed his assassination to happen, not the police, to investigate itself behind closed doors? So what if the real assassins ran a division who purpose was to blacken the name of the nationalist camp and create provocations? So what if the conspirators toast "champagne" while the patsy does time?
More than half the country is convinced that the investigation was srak -- as in empty "blank" bullet -- and an inside job but for the good of the country we kept silent. If the barely veiled truth came out, we knew, it would bring the house down.
Yes, the House. Our corrupt leaders were backed by lawyers and investors who raked in millions weekly from profits of the Jericho Casino, which kept operating as long as it could, so the cash flow would continue unimpeded. The powers that be planned for additional casinos in Gaza, after the Jews who made a productive living there were evicted, their greenhouses plundered, their communities turned into rubble-strew free-fire zones for outbound Kassams.
Let's not get started on the adventures on the ranch -- itself a public asset prematurely privatized -- and that madcap "first family" who entertained the nation, free from prosecuation, with sordid tales of get-rich schemes, graft, and nepotism. Let us not speak ill of the brain-dead lest the life-support and taxpayer money that keeps the scion breathing and the sons out of prison be turned off.
Let us not speak badly of an attorney-general who ruled that the one who had become a "vegetable" was not "incapacitated" so that the shyster who now occupies the seat of power could be re-elected without opposition and thus continue his wheeling and dealing.
Let us not mention the hundreds of millions of dollars to create an underground nuclear-safe bunker buried in the Judean Hills close to the airport for our "leadership" to shelter in on their way to the airport and craven exile.
Let us not speak of the gross incompetence that the nation and the world was forced to witness last summer, of the lives lost, the bodies maimed, the opportunities squandered and the dangers created due to lack of leadership, lack of courage, lack of intelligence.
Let us obsess instead on the case of the President accused of sexual improprieties by past employees of offices where he served. I don't know whether he is guilty of crimes. If he did he should be indicted, tried and, if guilty, punished. Not gang-raped by the media.
In the country where I come from, a citizen is deemed innocent until proven guilty. In Jewish law, anonymous individuals can't make unsubstantiated accusations without proof nor freely blacken the name of a named individual.
They say that where there's smoke, there's fire -- but if there's an arsonist on the loose, you also need to look and see whether someone might have had a motive to set him up and bring him down with a "blood libel."
Is it not curious that all of these accusers -- some of whom went out of their way to ingratiate themselves to their alleged molester, who called him to wish him happy birthday, and who sought recommendations or employment from him, would suddenly line up to charge him with a felony?
But who would have the motive and power and funding to organize such a parade?
Could it be the Nobel pretender who was shamed by losing, again, suddenly and ignominiously, to this self-made "nobody" from a transit camp, could not stand being "cheated" out of the august position of leadership he feels he deserved and deserves?
Oh! And look! Now he wants to run for that very office again! What a coincidence.
And he demands a change in the law to allow a public ballot? Why? Because then he can intimidate others to vote for him and exact revenge if they don't. Why else? That's his nature. As Yitzhak Rabin described him, presciently, he was, and is, a "tireless subverter."
If we are talking about imprisoning people who have had adulterous affairs, we could find not one but two of those running for President -- and they, according to the common wisdom in this too-small country -- had it with each other. Hey, but that's their business.
To listen to the litany of media accusations, one might nurse the certainty that the President is guilty, guilty, guilty. But is there not even a remote possibility that there are vengeful people who seek to defame and emasculate our elected President, to blacken his name and shame him and his supporters before his nation and the world?
Who might order the firing of incriminating blanks -- srak, srak, srak -- at the incumbent so the Vulture-in-waiting could take his coveted place at the top of the totem pole, squawking of a New Middle East and waiting to feed off the corpses of its victims? Sound familiar?
What if the President, in his impassioned cri de couer, was telling even a grain of the truth? Would he not deserve to first confront his accusers in a court of law? Would he deserve not to be lynched by media? And when will those who know about the Vulture and the birds of prey who surround him go public with their knowledge and put him away once and for all. President Moshe Katsav: this too you must tell, not hint.
We take guilty pleasure at peeping through our fingers at the public humiliation of the President of Israel. He may not be a saint. He may have acted inappropriately. He may be guilty of improprieties, even crimes. But he deserves a hearing, the right of any citizen. And if there is even evidence for an indictment, he deserves a trial.
Real criminals guilty of felonies far worse -- crimes against the nation, treason in bed with our mortal enemies -- remain free, all-too-eager to seize control, grab the teat of public money, and force themselves illicitly into the seat of unchallenged power so they can away with even more. So the traitors within can keep gang-raping the Jewish State, finishing the sodomy they started.
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