Arcadi for prime minister

Yes, I support Arcadi’s run for the Knesset.

No, this is not a kiss-up-to-Gaydamak article so that he will send me to Eilat for the weekend. If I was Attorney General Meni Mazuz, I would have sent Arcadi back to France immediately upon their request for extradition. In addition, I would have denied him his radio station. In Laura’s world, profiting off the misery of the people of Angola deserves a special place in hell and certainly constitutes moral turpitude.

Whether I like it or not, Arcadi is here to stay and Israel desperately needs him. Like Snow White, Israel now has only dwarfs to choose from. Whatever you want to say about Arcadi, he is no dwarf. The man has come from nowhere to make a huge fortune.

Not content to sit on his fortune, he has used that fortune to redo himself as a bigger than life folk hero in Israel. At the same time, he has helped the people that need his help the most. Arcadi has stepped up to the plate when no one else including our government has.

We might not like to think about it. What would have happened to the North if Arcadi had not ridden to their rescue? In the early days of the war, my friends in Safed told me that they called many charities in Israel that refused their request for aid.

Many philanthropists enjoy spiffing up their aristocratic image by giving to the arts etc. But Israel and the Israeli people are lucky that Arcadi has chosen to get his hands dirty. People who have witnessed his charity up close have expressed amazement and wonder at Gaydamak’s organizational efficiency and speed. In contrast, they have to expect only delays from the Israeli government.

Many political pundits have urged the government to fulfill its responsibilities so that there will not be a need for Gaydamak. Those pundits are smoking dope. Their comments are irresponsible. The poor should starve, dodge missiles on the way to work and return home to spend their evenings in bomb shelters so that these pundits can feel good about their government. Feeling good about our government is a luxury most of us do not have.

Radical surgery needed

Without radical surgery, the Israeli government does not have the resources and talent to help these people. Gaydamak does. Who cares about his motives? There is an American saying that behind every great fortune, there is a crime. Sadly, the days of no strings attached philanthropy are long gone. Everyone has a motive for their giving. But most of them are not as effective at helping the needy in a crisis as Gaydamak.

It is not only Arcadi’s cash that Israel needs. His real genius has been in marketing himself. Arcadi knows how to reach people and make them like him. If only Arcadi could apply that same genius to marketing the State of Israel, the press would soon be reporting on besieged Israelis, not besieged Palestinians. Tourism to Gadymakland would triple from present numbers. I suspect that Gaydamak could sell ice to Eskimos and glasses to a blind man.

When billionaire Silvio Berlusconni with a shady past that came back to bite him in the present was elected prime minister of Italy, commentators shrilly predicted that it would be the end of Italy. Italy is still standing and pasta is being served.

Israel will survive the election of Arcadi Gaydamak. We have survived worse. Once they have gotten into office, most of our ministers from Sharon to Netanyahu to Olmert to Liebermen have been investigated. In Arcadi’s case, he was investigated before. What is the difference?