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Our hedonistic leaders
London trip not a sign of Bibi’s corruption, but rather, his detachment from voters
As far as I know, Netanyahu is not corrupt; certainly not in political terms. Corrupt politicians embezzle public funds or accept bribes from the wealthy in exchange for funding, perks, or legal immunity. Netanyahu is not like that.
He is a hedonist. A hedonistic politician is one who adopts a living standard that is immeasurably higher than that of his voters and does not care at all how much it costs and who pays for it. The difference between the two types is huge: A corrupt politician takes, and gives something in return. A hedonistic politician takes, and doesn’t give anything in return.
A corrupt politician is exposed through his income; a hedonistic politician is exposed through his expenditures. Corrupt politicians belong in prison; hedonistic politicians should be tried in the court of public opinion.
On the weekend, Channel 10 published a detailed account of Netanyahu’s expenditures in two trips he made to London – one as a finance minister and another one as the opposition leader. The sum paid by the State, directly and through the Bonds, a government company, covered only some of the bills according to the report. The rest was paid by unknown donors.
Netanyahu said the sums are baseless or distorted, but as of Saturday night refused to provide a detailed response. Knesset Member Yuval Steinitz, who was sent to respond on his behalf, did not contribute anything to clarifying the facts, regrettably. The facts and figures should be clarified by Netanyahu, and he better do this quickly, and with full transparency.
Netanyahu is not the only one among our political leadership who has become addicted to what is perceived here as the good life. This exclusive cigar-smoking club has at least two more distinguished political members: Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak.
I am not jealous of them or the cigars they secretly smoke. Their social milieu is much more worrisome. Nineteen families control a third of the Israeli economy’s revenues – NIS 250 billion (roughly $70 billion.) These families and the battalions of lawyers, CEOs, and advertising executives who surround them comprise the social circle surrounding our three hedonists.
They live in the same neighborhoods, in the same luxury homes, cling to the same billionaires abroad, and attend the same expensive and self-pompous parties. The result is alienation, if not indifference, to the true distress of the people they are supposed to represent. What they see from over there is not what we see from over here in Sderot, Kiryat Gat, or Jerusalem.
Just like the main characters of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” they learned that everyone is equal, but some are worth more. On occasion, they are being attacked for belonging to the top 10 percentile. This is a mistake: Every such percentile in Israel comprises 700,000 people. Most people in the top 10 percentile cannot even dream about the materialistic terms of reference adopted by Olmert, Barak, and Netanyahu. The three are not part of the top 10 percentile – they are part of the top 0.1 percentile.
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