Hanoch Daum
Photo: Rafi Deloya
End the embarrassment
Hanoch Daum calls on Prime Minister Olmert to do the right thing and resign
It’s starting to be very embarrassing, Mr. prime minister. The suspicions that your relatives traveled abroad at your expense, that donors gave you cash-filled envelopes, and that you asked several non-profit groups to fund the same trips – it’s simply unpleasant.
Today, it is unpleasant to be a citizen in the State of Israel. It is unpleasant to be a law-abiding citizen and see you, an elected prime minister, dealing with more and more piles of mud, more and more charges, more and more suspicions – and all of them emanating a sense of gluttony.
You are allowed to fight for your innocence, Mr. prime minister, yet even if you somehow come out of this mostly unscathed, following a lengthy legal campaign, the public is already paying the price for your conduct.
Because you must know, Mr. prime minister: Something is cracking around here these days. Something very fundamental is being undermined here. The media war waged by you and your people against the judicial system, your advisors’ attempts to accuse police investigators of conduct that typifies dark regimes, and the too-loud silence of your former bureau chief – all of this taints the rule of law in Israel and creates a genuine crisis, with you being in the eye of the storm but failing to notice it.
Daily disgrace
For the sake of the responsibility I believe you have over this nation, try for a moment to listen to the public mood: Your fight against the suspicions emerging against you can be legitimate only if you engage in it from the outside; only if you announce your intentions clearly and declare that you are quitting your post and sparing Israel’s public life the need to be part of this great daily disgrace.
Neither we nor you need this at this time, Mr. prime minister. At such sensitive times, neither we nor you need a vulnerable prime minister under suspicion, a prime minister who depends on the testimony of close associates, a PM who spends most of his time dealing with an attempt to explain invoices and flights dating back to the time he served as minister and mayor.
It’s starting to become very embarrassing, Mr. prime minister, and it is your responsibility to spare all of us this embarrassment.
