It was only a matter of time before the massive corruption racket that is Israel's occupation and settlement regime seeped into mainstream Israeli society.
Whether the string of scandals now hounding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will lead to his sacking or not matters little.
Though nearly half of Israelis polled last July—well before the scandals took a much dirtier turn—believe that Netanyahu is corrupt, a majority of Israelis said that they would still vote for him.
A recent survey conducted by Israel’s Channel 10 TV concluded that, if general elections are held today, Netanyahu will garner 28% while his closest contenders, Avi Gabbay of the Zionist Camp and Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid will each gather 11% of the vote.
“The next stage, which is drawing near, is for the citizens of Israel to re-elect a criminal as their leader and entrust their fate to him,” a leading Israeli columnist, Akiva Eldar, wrote in response to Netanyahu’s continued popularity, despite accusations of corruption and repeated police investigations.
But Eldar should not be surprised. Political corruption, bribery and misuse of public funds have been the norm—not the exception—in Israeli politics.
Alex Roy puts it more succinctly in a recent piece in the Times of Israel: “The fact that (Netanyahu) still has a good chance of being the prime minister after these coming elections says more about how used to corruption we have become than how clean he is.”
Roy wrote that his country “has gotten used to political criminals” simply because “each prime minister over the last quarter century has at some point faced criminal charges.”
He is right, but there are two major points that are missing in the discussion which had been, until recently, mostly confined to Israeli media.
First, the nature of the suspected misconduct of Netanyahu is different from his predecessors. This matters greatly.
Second, Israeli society’s apparent acceptance of corrupt politicians might have less to do with the assumption that they have “gotten used” to the idea and more with the fact that the culture, as a whole, has grown corrupt. And there is a reason for it.
To elucidate, Netanyahu’s alleged corruption is rather different from that of former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert.
Olmert was corrupt the old-fashioned way. In 2006, he was found guilty of accepting bribes while serving as the mayor of Jerusalem. In 2012, he was convicted for breach of trust and bribery, this time as Prime Minister. In 2015 he was sentenced to six years imprisonment.
Other top Israeli officials were also indicted, including President Moshe Katsav, who was convicted of rape and obstruction of justice.
These charges remained largely confined to a person or two, making the nature of the conspiracy quite limited. Israeli and western media pundits used such prosecutions to make a point regarding the health of Israel’s democracy, especially when compared with its Arab neighbors.
Things are different under Netanyahu. Corruption in Israel is becoming more like mafia operations, roping in elected civil servants, military brass, top lawyers and large conglomerates.
The nature of the investigations that are closing in on Netanyahu points to this fact.
Netanyahu is embroiled in ‘File 1000’, where the Prime Minister and his wife accepted gifts of large financial value from a renowned Hollywood producer, Arnon Milchan, in exchange for favors that, if confirmed, required Netanyahu to use his political influence as the Prime Minister.
‘File 2000’ is the ‘Yisrael Hayom’ affair. In this case, Netanyahu reached a secret deal with the publisher of the leading Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Arnon Mozes. According to the deal, Yedioth agreed to cut down on its criticism of Netanyahu’s policies in exchange for the latter’s promise to decrease the sale of a rival newspaper, Yisrael Hayom.
Yisrael Hayom is owned by pro-Israeli American business tycoon, Sheldon Adelson, Netanyahu’s close and powerful ally, until the news of the Yedioth deal surfaced. Since then, Yisrael Hayom turned against Netanyahu.
‘File 3000’ is the German submarines affair. Top national security advisors, all very closely aligned to Netanyahu, were involved in the purchase of German submarines that were deemed unnecessary, yet cost the government billions of dollars. Large sums of this money were syphoned by Netanyahu’s inner circle and transferred to secret, private bank accounts.
This case, in particular, is significant regarding the widespread corruption in Israel’s upper-most circles.
Central to this investigation are the cousins and two closest confidantes of Netanyahu: his personal lawyer, David Shimron and the country’s ‘de-facto foreign minister’, Isaac Molcho. The latter has managed to build an impressive, but largely hidden, network for Netanyahu, where the lines of foreign policy, massive government contracts, and personal business dealings are largely blurred.
There is also the ‘Berzeq affair’ involving Israeli telecommunication giant, Berzeq, and Netanyahu’s political ally and friend, Shlomo Filber.
Netanyahu was the Minister of Communication until he was ordered by court to step down in 2016. According to media reports, his handpicked replacement, Filber, served the role of ‘spy’ for the telecommunication powerhouse to ensure critical decisions made by the government are communicated in advance to the company.
Most intriguing about Netanyahu’s corruption is that it is not a reflection of him alone: this is layered corruption, involving a large network of Israel’s upper echelons.
There is more to the Israeli public’s willingness to accept corruption, than its inability to stop it.
Corruption in Israeli society has become particularly endemic after the occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. The idea that ordinary Israelis can move into a Palestinian house, evict the family, claim the house as their own, with the full support of the military, the government and the court, exemplifies moral corruption to the highest degree.
It was only a matter of time before this massive corruption racket—military occupation, the settlement enterprise, the media whitewashing of Israeli crimes—seeped back into mainstream Israeli society, which has become rotten to the core.
While Israelis might have ‘gotten used’ to their own corruption, Palestinians have not because the price of Israel’s moral corruption is too high for them to bear.
This article was originally published at RamzyBaroud.net on November 15, 2017.
Interview with Yeshayahu Leibowitz – Israel is No Longer a Democracy
Leibowitz: Since the 6 day war, Israel is no longer a democracy. Israel deprives two million people of civil and political rights.
Interviewer: Do you think so?
Leibowitz: I think that depriving two million people of civil and political rights is not an opinion but a reality. That is what the state wants.
Interviewer: To wonder if Israel is a democracy is sterile?
Leibowitz: It is a sterile question. It is willfully that the state deprives these two million people of civil and political rights. South Africa was not a democracy either. But the people are governed by a very great statesman whose name should go down in history, de Klerk, who in stages but quite rapidly is indeed giving the population including the blacks, all the civil and, it would seem, political rights. This is happening today through the world in practically all countries that are considered enlightened. But the State of Israel is the only dictatorship that exists today in the enlightened world. So it is not a coincidence that Israel is the only state in the world, in the enlightened world, in which the president of the Supreme Court was capable of saying that torture could be used in order to make Arab prisoners talk. Everyone knows full well that everywhere in the world those in the power use torture, but it is illegal. All the states in the Western world abolished it in the 18th century, even before the French revolution. 200 years ago. they abolished the use of torture during police interrogations, all the western countries, even Tsarist Russia. But the State of Israel represents the backwardness of a state body. in which there is a monster who exercises the functions of president of a Supreme Court only to say that the use of torture is permitted when it is necessary in the interests of the state. That shows that a Nazi-like mentality, because it is a Nazi mentality, also exists in our country. That is a fact. Admittedly you can find it anywhere. No human group is safe from such a character But the fact is that in the Israeli legal system neither the judges nor the lawyers challenged this man. That says a great deal about the Nazi mentality that is dominant here.
Israel was never a democracy. The moment they started stealing land after illegal declaration of independence in 1948 proves that Zionist virus regime never intended to be a democracy. They were quite content with developing a colonizing theocracy ripe with bigotry hypocrisy and hatred towards the indigenous people.
Democracy appears to be an illusion.
What I would like to ask – which economic system is democratic?
You’re right. Democracy is an illusion. It sounds good to the sheeple. The US is getting deeper into fascism with the drug companies, bankster and the oil gushers working harder with this government to control these sheeple. What bothers me is that Israel claims to be an only democracy in the Middle East. No true democracy treats indigenous people by stealing their land and identity. Then they brand the victims as terrorists. These European colonizers refused to assimilate as they moved into this foreign land. The question is….what would a person do if someone comes to their house and says get out, God gave it to me? That for sure is not democracy at any stretch.
Western Democracy is an illusion.
It really serves as a smoke screen for Western exceptionalism.
Agreed
Syria is more of a democracy than illegal Israel.
You’re probably right. It was more secular than Israel ever was. Israel couldn’t have a stable Syria. So, they had to sabotage it and destabilize it. While Assad wasn’t the best politician, he was changing for the better. And again, Israel wouldn’t have that. They want to destabilize every Arab State as much as possible so they could play the victim. Oh, those evil Arabs are terrorizing us Israelis (who came from Europe to colonize a land with no Middle Eastern connection, to steal land because God gave it to them. Then instead of assimilating, these European immigrants forced the indigenous people to conform to these new laws and foreign customs.).
It is all linked to the Yinon Plan.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinon_Plan.
Thanks for the link. Fortunately, for Syria, the Russians stepped in and messed up this plan for now.
These corruption charges are one thing – far more seriously are the crimes against humanity in relation to the 60+ occupation of Palestinian territories and the air sea and land blockade.
Since US politicians are required to pledge an oath of allegiance to Israel, little is known about politicians in other western nations and if they are required to pledge similar oath.
I somehow doubt that I would ever be allowed to come close enough to do this myself which is why I’m suggesting that Western journalist ought to consider asking the relevant questions to the right politicians.
I don’t think it is a condition of becoming a US politician that they have to swear allegiance to illegal Israel.
The only ones who do – presumably – are zionists politicians in Occupied Palestine.
Of course, few US politicians are prepared to be seen publicly opposing the zionists in any way.
But neither do most of them oppose the gun lobby, big Pharma, the military-industrial complex, etc.
That is US politics for you – the finest preferential system that money can – and does – buy!
True, it is not a condition per se – what it does imply is that candidates running for congress will have trouble finding financial support to run their campaigns.
This short but highly informative interview with Cynthia Mckinney reveals whats been happening behind the scenes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXaCym8RjJU&feature=youtu.be
Thank you – most interesting.
It just goes to show just how corrupt the political systems in the US and illegal Israel are.
They are not as bad as Zimbabwe or other corrupt regimes – but they are getting there!
Any nation that signs up with the US via one or another deal becomes one of their vassal states.
No thanks to globalization no nation is fully in charge of their own sovereignty – They’ve all become accountable to their creditors and the investment class.