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Time for vacation
Finance minister should take immediate leave even before he is indicted
Envelopes, that's what's so mind boggling in Abraham Hirchson's story. Envelopes delivered to his doorstep, like a delivery from the supermarket, like a Dominoes Pizza, glued with spit, filled with bundles of cash.
Menachem Begin told his electorate of his dream of slips of paper on which the letters "Mahal" would be printed. And here we are talking about wads of cash, showers of wads, and all of them have the images of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Zalman Shazar or even better, Benjamin Franklin, the man of the 100 dollar bill printed on them.
In three words, what an embarrassment!
An indictment hasn't been served and the police investigation has just begun. As it appears from reports by Ran Binyamini, a reporter of criminal affairs for Kol Israel Radio, Hirchson's rivals set him up. In any event, even if the set-up is rock solid the legal process should be allowed to run its course. Innocent until proven guilty doesn't only exist for the sake of protocol: It is a way of life.
The man Abraham Hirchson is innocent as long as it has not been proven otherwise, but Finance Minister Hirchson must take leave immediately. That's what common sense, rationale and 60 years of national experience dictate. It's a pity that what every Israeli on the street currently understands is still not understood by the finance minister.
When a nation's finance minister is questioned on criminal charges, there is immediate concern that he would take advantage of his powers to distort justice. There is concern that he may inundate the economy with dramatic decisions aimed at diverting attention away from his wrongdoings; concern that he would threaten top police brass, or alternately, try to bribe with money and benefits investigators and those under investigation.
All these concerns are unfounded in Hirchson's case. Whether he sits in his office at the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem or at home, it won't make the slightest difference to the economy. The stock exchange proves this: While Hirchson's investigation made the main headlines the stock exchange continued to rise as if there was no finance minister.
And this is not just if. It appears that the sharks at the stock exchange understand Israeli economics better than the ministers in Jerusalem. They have known for quite some time that there is no finance minister.
It will not make a difference to the investigators or those being questioned either. They know that the finance minister is weaker than they are. Even if he wanted to do something – in Hirchson's case this option is unthinkable – he couldn't do a thing. Anything he tries to say or do will immediately be made public and backfire like a boomerang.
He should take leave not because of the economy and not because of the people who testified against him, but because of the damage he is inflicting on our political culture. No one can relate to a government seriously when its finance minister is facing such charges and he on his part is continuing his daily routine as if nothing has happened.
This is a government of ostriches at best, and of total cynics at worst. If Hirchson has not himself understood the ridiculous situation in which he is immersing the cabinet and his friend the prime minister, Ehud Olmert should have told him so. Olmert's silence is no less severe than Hirchson's contempt.
Some have interpreted Hirchson's conduct as a preface to a plea bargain: Hirchson will only agree to leave in exchange for annulment or easing of the indictment. This interpretation could lean on an historic precedence: Spiro Theodore Agnew, the 39th Vice President of the United States serving under President Richard M. Nixon, who accepted envelopes full of cash from real estate entrepreneurs.
In 1973, when his offenses were disclosed he reached a plea bargain with the prosecution: He resigned and then pleaded nolo contendere (no contest) to criminal charges of tax evasion and money laundering, he admitted to a light felony and was charged a symbolic fine.
In America during the 1970s such a plea bargain could have been accepted. Not in Israel of 2007: If the attorney general concludes that there is a basis for the charges against Hirchson, he will indict him, and Hirchson will have to go without a plea bargain.
Leave of absence is the solution. It's spring. The fields are blooming in a myriad of colors, birds are chirping, Passover is just around the corner, and getting away from the compressed air of the Finance Ministry corridors would be healthy. Israel is on leave, and it's time for Hirchson to take his leave as well.
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