The Israeli political Ferris wheel
Op-ed: The interior minister and leader of the opposition, previously suspected of illegal activity, are back in politics and suspected yet again; are they being targeted or actually trying to get away with it again?
Sometimes, it seems like our country is going in circles. Our political system is like a Ferris wheel, which, after a rotation, returns the same people to the top that were just there a bit before. Only a few years later, we're getting the same people, the same suspicions, and the same police inquiries.
We were on top, we were at the bottom, around and around, and: Hey! Here they are again, 17 years later, Interior Minister Deri and Zionist Union leader Herzog. The first is in a criminal police investigation, and the second is in a police and Tax Authority inquiry for violating the Parties Financing Law.
What you felt when these two stories broke this week wasn't déjà vu, but disgust. These stories, which are bringing us back to the late 90s, aren't doing us any good, even if it turns out that there's nothing to them—that it was all revenge from rivals and schemers. And it certainly won't do be good if it turns out that there really is something to the suspicions against our interior minister—whose return to that position is still pending before the Supreme Court—is again immersed in criminal activity. As for Herzog, who during the Barak government was investigated in party-financing matters and who maintained his right to silence: He may be again entangled in party-financing matters.
It's too early to say how these inquiries will end up. Instinctively, it seems that this cannot be. I mean, we're talking here about two intelligent, experienced, careful people. Aryeh Mahlouf Deri's return from being a convicted criminal to leading Shas and the Interior Ministry was a long journey. A long and exhausting journey that you could say is still unfinished. He is still the provisional Interior Minister, his past crimes have not yet been wiped clean, and the public has still not forgotten.
"It can't be," says the reasonable man to himself, "that this sophisticated man, who sits in the government as a level-headed, mature, responsible person, consciously crossed the line and repeated the mistakes that got him sent to prison for years."
It can't be that the Jacuzzi that featured in the first act is now starring alongside two pools and a luxurious house in Safsufa. And how can it be that a man who ran a transparent campaign in the last elections hid all his family, his children and his property?"
It just seems that all that this man is looking for these days is legitimacy. Public sympathy. Fixing all those years that he was in jail. Returning not only to the ministry from which he was sent to prison, but to the unique position that he once held in the days of Rabin and Netanyahu's first term, when he was a mover and a shaker, a modern and a moderate, a media darling that everybody wanted to be around.
In fact, he's popular in the government. At times of crises, tantrums and fights the likes of which are frequent in Netanyahu's cabinet, Deri is the calming influence who puts things back in proportion. He often comes in to order a debate that has gotten out of control. Even in the Security Cabinet, Deri's presence is sane and moderating, which is certainly welcomed by the security officials.
There is no doubt that the story landed on Deri out of the clear blue sky. Even if questions had been asked in the past about the large amount of property that he had amassed, it's doubtful if he would have thought that it would come to a police investigation - that pictures of his apartments in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and aerial photographs of his family's vacation house would be at the top of the news.
And Herzog. Our Bougie. What can I say about the leader of the opposition, who even on Wednesday spoke of the unity talks that were progressing between him and Netanyahu. By the way, there's no point in asking him about that. He'll deny it. He always denies. But the question that will be asked about his police inquiry is "Why now?" Who wanted to put out a leg for him to trip over? And, as opposed to Deri, it's conceivable that this is a targeted elimination from inside his own party.
Just don’t underestimate Herzog's capacity to survive. The nerdy character that we all know is just one side of his personality. The man is a lot more impervious than he looks. And when he needs it, his toy isn't a teddy bar, but a sharp knife.
