Corruption? Par for the course say Israelis

Reports from Al Monitor and VICE.com. Plus notes and links.

The rig for extracting natural gas from the Tamar gasfield. There was a brief flurry of protest from citizens at the awarding of this public resource to Texan Noble Energy and super-rich Yitzhak Tshuva, owner of Delek. Plus a lot of ministerial shuffling by Netanyahu to ensure he got those big contractors he wanted.

Corruption becomes hallmark of Israel government

Israelis appear to be resigned in the face of a prime minister who dismisses Palestinian despair, Knesset members’ involved in corruption and major companies gouging the public with the government’s assistance.

By Akiva Eldar, trans. Ruti Sinai, Al Monitor
November 12, 2015

Who says it’s impossible to deepen the Israeli occupation by increasing construction in the settlements and approving new outposts, all the while prattling on at the White House about establishing a Palestinian state on the very same land? Who says it’s impossible to hire a consultant who has spat in the face of the president of the United States and to also obtain free, state-of-the-art weaponry from the same president? Even Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is not considered a big fan of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, promised that if elected, one of her first acts would be to invite him to the White House. In an article Clinton penned for the Jewish newspaper Forward and the Israeli daily Haaretz, the only victims of the occupation — a word nowhere to be found in the piece — are the citizens of Israel, who “have to look over their shoulders during everyday tasks, like carrying groceries and waiting for the bus.”

The latest Peace Index survey indicates that Israelis are reverting to their daily routines despite the current wave of violence. Most Israeli Jews, 64%, report that they have not changed their daily routines by cutting back on public transport or changing the way they shop. In addition, most Israelis do not seem to have absorbed the comments made on Nov. 1 by Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi, chief of Military Intelligence, about the link between Palestinian despair and terror attacks.

The Peace Index, [see posting below] conducted by the Evens Programme in Mediation and Conflict Resolution at Tel Aviv University and the Israel Democracy Institute, shows that the vast majority of Israelis, 74%, rejects the contention that the current wave of terror attacks is the result of Palestinian despair over the stalemate in diplomatic negotiations. In other words, average Israelis do not blame their leadership and its policies for the absence of peace or the undermining of their personal safety. The major opposition parties, the Zionist Camp and Yesh Atid, have offered no practical diplomatic alternatives for change. Israelis thus have no choice but to adopt Netanyahu’s fatalistic approach, according to which we shall forever live by the sword.

This acceptance of the way things are in the country and the lack of motivation to change them manifest themselves in other areas, not just in issues of diplomacy and defence. They are also typical of the attitude toward corruption, which indirectly and directly affects the well-being of each and every citizen. The protest slogan “We are sick of corrupt officials,” which led to the 1977 downfall of Mapai after 29 consecutive years in power, is a distant memory. Fewer than 8,000 people turned out on the night of Nov. 7 for nationwide demonstrations to protest against the government’s plan for the ​distribution of resources and benefits from the country’s natural gas reserves. What happened to the 500,000 citizens who protested in the summer of 2011 to demand social justice?

A protest against the gas monopoly, in Tel Aviv, May 30, 2015. Demonstrators wear masks depicting Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Delek’s Yitzhak Tshuva, and hold a sign saying ‘it’s a robbery.’ Photo by Tomer Appelbaum

On the road to approval of the natural gas blueprint — which essentially takes a precious natural resource that belongs to the public and hands it over to the businessman Yitzhak Tshuva and the Texas-based firm Noble Energy — Netanyahu removed Economy Minister Aryeh Deri, after he refused to override anti-trust regulations and sign the gas deal outline. This enabled the prime minister to complete the manipulative process that began with the ouster of the anti-trust regulator, David Gilo, on the pretext that the gas regulation issue was defence related. As part of the deal with Deri, who was convicted in 1999 of bribery and fraud, Netanyahu upgraded the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, which Deri now heads, and added to Deri’s portfolio responsibility for the so-called ‘periphery’*, a term that has become popular in Israeli public discourse in recent years.

The prime minister also gave Deri a bonus — a special budget of 300 million Israeli shekels ($78 million). One must add to this public expenditure the amount of money each Israeli household could have saved had the government decided to control the price of natural gas. Where are the thousands of young people who hung out for weeks on end in 2011 in tents on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard to protest the exorbitant cost of living?

Israelis are also being gouged for telephone landlines because of another monopoly. This fate was not preordained. Rather, it is the result of blatant meddling by Netanyahu through his position as communications minister. Former Communications Minister Gilad Erdan, on Nov. 18, 2014, his last day in office before resigning, signed a regulation requiring the monopolistic Bezeq to sell its landline services to competing firms at a regulated cost in a move designed to reduce the price of phone and Internet services. After taking over the communications portfolio, Netanyahu’s first move was to oust its director general, Avi Berger, who had fought against the Bezeq monopoly, and replace him with a yes-man, Shlomo Filber. In an Oct. 29 investigative report in the Haaretz weekend supplement, reporter Gidi Weitz describes how the popular Walla website has become a reflection of Yisrael Hayom, the pro-Netanyahu daily. Walla is owned by Bezeq, which is controlled by businessman Shaul Elovitch, who is waging a battle against reforms in landline services.

The Weitz report recounts how Walla CEO Ilan Yeshu’a told the site’s journalists, “Netanyahu is ruining the country. I take anti-nausea pills when I ask this of you, but I have no choice but to take down the top story, to add an item. It is being dictated from above. I have no choice. There are big moves afoot. We must not get in the way.” In no uncertain terms, Yeshu’a also said, “We do indeed have big cash reserves, but we also have many interests. There’s lots of crony capitalism involved, orders from high up.” On occasion, senior editors would simply tell reporters that Elovitch himself had ordered that the prime minister be defended. This scandal, too, evaporated, among the reports of the lynching of Habtom Zerhom, a migrant worker from Eritrea who was mistakenly suspected of perpetrating a terror attack, and newsbreaks about stabbing incidents.

Corruption follows corruption. Former Likud Knesset member Michael Gorlovsky was arrested on suspicion of accepting a bribe to the fantastic tune of 33 million Israeli shekels ($8 million) from the National Roads Company. In addition, the police announced that they were recommending that prosecutors indict former Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirschenbaum and former Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, both of Yisrael Beitenu, for allegedly running a well-oiled machine of public fund transfers to various agencies in return for bribes.

The Zionist Camp has also been marching in the corruption parade. On Oct. 27, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein announced the decision to try Binyamin “Fuad” Ben-Eliezer, former defence minister and Labour Party (now Zionist Camp) chairman, on charges of taking bribes, money laundering and other activities. This is a man who was a heartbeat away from being elected state president.

Despite the never-ending revelations of corruption, the citizens of Israel are still able to discern those leaders who embody integrity. Regardless of his strong ideological advocacy, President Reuven “Ruvi” Rivlin remains an appreciated figure by Israelis on the left, centre and right, a man of integrity and a zealous democrat, as was another figure from Israel’s cleaner past, Yitzhak Navon, the former president who died Nov. 7.

* The ‘periphery is the outer ring of towns in which most Mizrahim live.

Corruption Is Institutionalized, Say Activists, as Israeli ex-Prime Minister Is Jailed

By Harriet Salem, VICE
May 25, 2015

The former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has been sentenced to eight months in prison for illegally accepting more than $150,000 from a US tycoon whilst holding a ministerial office.

Olmert, who served for three years at Israel’s helm, was previously acquitted of the charges in 2012 after businessman Morris “Moshe” Talansky testified that the cash-stuffed envelopes he gave Olmert were for cigars and luxury trips abroad, and were not related to political deals. However, that decision was reversed when the politician’s former assistant presented damning new evidence showing he offered her money in exchange for not testifying against him.

Speaking at Monday’s hearing the prosecutor accused Olmert — who presented a letter of character witness from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair during the hearing — of having “expressed no remorse” for his crimes, while judges criticized him for lying during the first trial.

Olmert is now set to serve nearly seven years in jail having already been sentenced to six years for accepting bribes in a multi-million dollar real estate whilst serving as mayor of Jerusalem. He is appealing the six year sentence and plans to appeal the new conviction and sentence, said his lawyers.

The double conviction of the former head of state is just one in a series of recent court cases and ongoing police investigations that activists say highlight the extent political corruption in Israel.

Over the last two decades more than a dozen MPs, including three former ministers have received jail time for crimes including fraud, embezzlement and forgery whilst in office.

Among them are former finance minister Avraham Hirschson who stole close to two million shekels from the National Workers Labor Federation while acting as chairman of the organization, and the current minister of economy, Aryeh Deri, who spent nearly two years in jail for taking bribes while he was interior minister.

A total of four Israeli prime ministers have been subject to police investigations for alleged corruption, but only Olmert has ultimately been charged and convicted.

Back in 2000 a probe into the incumbent head of state Benjamin Netanyahu for accepting free services from a private contractor was dropped despite a police recommendation to press charges. The Attorney General overseeing the case said there was insufficient evidence to go to court but expressed “discomfort” at the decision not to proceed due to a “tangible suspicion” of wrongdoing.

Netanyahu and his wife Sara recently came under further scrutiny for misappropriation of public money after a government auditor’s report revealed the couple spent $18,000 a year on takeaway meals despite having a cook and more than $25,000 on cleaning their private home in a upmarket beach resort.

“The system is far too lenient on these political figures,” Eli Sulam, Director of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel told VICE News. “If a former finance minister and prime minister can be sent to jail then we can assume there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes.”

Corruption allegations also surrounded Ariel Sharon, Israel’s prime minister from 2001 to 2006, throughout his career. One of the most high-profile cases was the so-called “Greek Island” affair in which Sharon and his son Gilad were accused of taking backhand payments from businessman and political powerbroker David Appel, in return for favourable treatment of his plans to build an exotic casino off the Aegean coast. Appel was indicted for bribery in 2004, but the charges were later dropped.

“Israel’s a young state, it started out very small, with a closed culture that led to family protectionism and nepotism as a norm in politics and business,” Ifat Zamir Executive Director of Transparency International in Israel, told VICE News. “There have been a lot of advances in transparency and accountability, but it’s a process and there’s still a long way to go.”

Recent research by the NGO found only one percent of Israelis believed corruption was not a problem and 79 percent saw political parties as either “corrupt” or “extremely corrupt.”

However, activists say the stats also reflect increased public awareness following large-scale “social justice” rallies in 2011. “After the protests people began demanding a lot more information,” said Sulam. “People are more critical of they government, they’re saying: ‘You’re not our king, this is our money not yours and we want to know how it’s being spent.'”

But knowledge about politicians’ corrupt activities doesn’t always translate into action at the polling booths in a country where security issues top many voters list of concerns.

“Politicians play on fears during elections, they talk about the Islamic State and Hamas and distract from the other important issues,” said Sulam. “Unfortunately as a result of this is we now have a convicted felon [Deri] serving as a minister again.”

Another major problem facing anti-corruption campaigners in Israel is the deeply institutionalized nature of the problem.

Activist-turned-politician Stav Shaffir, who aged just 29 is Israel’s youngest member of parliament, says she only realized the true extent of the task ahead after she was elected. Appointed to the Finance Committee after being elected in 2013, she says she discovered a shocking “double budget” policy of secretly funneling billions of dollars of public money into right-wing NGOs and movements, including pro-settlement groups.

“Corruption in Israel is often happening in legal grey zone. A lot of deals take place in the corridor, there’s no paper trail. The attitude is ‘that’s how things are done here,’ there’s no understanding inside the system that this way of doing things is even problematic,” she told VICE News.

Shaffir, recently re-elected, says she will continue her fight against corruption in the new government but there’s a long way to go. “Olmert’s conviction is a step in the right direction but it’s going to take a lot more than putting one person in jail,” she added. “Ultimately we need to change the whole system.”

Notes and Links

The Transparency Index, which measures perceptions of corruption, is compiled by Transparency International.

The top and bottom places are predictable:1,2,3, Denmark, Finland, Sweden. Joint 167 Somalia and N. Korea.