JERUSALEM - During his seven years as state comptroller, Eliezer Goldberg has presided over investigations and reports that have ignited the country. Now, as he retires at age 74, he says official corruption is the biggest threat to the country's future.
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"If we don't do something about it, the country is liable to slip down a slippery slope and could become a 'banana republic.'"
Goldberg called on all the country's politicians to "wave the anti-corruption flag" and to join together to fight corruption and to preserve democracy, and not to just stage investigations.
"This is a war of good against evil," he told "Yedioth Ahronoth." "It is a war of the children of light against the children of darkness. We must win this fight."
Challenges, problems
The Gaza disengagement program presents Israel with several challenges and problems, but Goldberg says he worries about one thing more than any other.
"Corruption is more threatening than any political or security threat Israel faces," he says.
He says political appointments are a "greenhouse" that foments corruption.
Goldberg was particularly critical of the so-called jobs law, calling it a corrupt, and corrupting, law.
"When there are people trying to idealize corruption and make it an ideology, this is exactly what I am talking about," he says.
"Why do people receive their positions? Because of their unique qualifications? No, it is to pay someone back. Political appointments in Israel have become a way to pay back supporters. In other words, give and take," he says. "Political norms have been trampled, and the politicians remain quiet."
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