Ben-Eliezer had no choice but to quit presidential race

• Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter
  

In the statement he released, he complained about the fact that the investigation was launched four days before the Knesset vote, although the claims that he had purchased an expensive apartment with other people's money have been known for a year now.

It's true that it's bad timing, but it's hard to see how Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein could have done things differently. Should the investigation have been postponed until after the vote? What would the Knesset members have said then? They would have said that they were blindfolded when they voted, that the attorney general had deceived them, that he had abused his office.

And what would the public have said if Ben-Eliezer had been elected, and the next day an investigation would have been launched against him? A third president under criminal investigation. What would have happened to the presidency?

There is probably no escape from appointing a body – a public committee or a professional team of investigators, or both – to rummage through the lives of contenders for senior positions. Such a committee, headed by retired Judge Jacob Turkel, examines candidates for the senior non-political positions. As we know from the scandals which surrounded the selection of the police commissioner, the IDF chief of staff and the Bank of Israel governor, its work is far from perfect. It doesn't know how to investigate.

We need to appoint a body with authorities and expand them to political positions as well. Every declaration of capital submitted by a Knesset member must be checked as if he were running for the position of prime minister or president. They must be checked before they are elected and during their term.

There is no escape, because the days in which the public showed mercy towards the private lives of its elected representatives, their sources of income and their behavior towards their subordinates are long gone. We can welcome the new days or yearn for the old days, but there is no point in denying reality.

Every name that pops up as a candidate for a desirable public position becomes the immediate suspect on the social networks, in talkbackers' curses, in associations' press releases, in police complaints.

Fouad says he suffered a targeted assassination. It's possible. One thing's for sure: The public atmosphere against all politicians borrows its concepts from the world of terror. The obvious piece of advice to anyone considering presenting their candidacy for a public position is to check very well whether there are any skeletons in their closet.

It's easier said than done. A person cannot smell his own breath, people smarter than me have said. People peek into their closets and fail to see the skeletons stuck in them. They are certain that everything is okay with them. They don’t destroy the incriminating disk drive in their computer, they don't erase incriminating recordings, they repress embarrassing mishaps from the past. It won't happen to me, they say.

Even when the decision makers have an advanced investigation mechanism at their disposal, they fall into the trap. US Republican presidential hopeful John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his partner in the presidential race and wasn't aware of the can of worms trailing behind her from Alaska; US President Barack Obama released five Taliban leaders in exchange for one captive soldier, and didn't know that he is probably a defector; Ariel Sharon made a deal with Hezbollah for the release of Elhanan Tannenbaum, and didn't know, or didn't realize, that he was a drug dealer. There is probably no absolute solution for this problem.

Next president will not be like Peres

We are left with five presidential candidates. Three professional politicians and two from the outside. The votes Ben-Eliezer was about to receive will likely be divided between all of them.

The affair led to a wave of hatred on social media against all politicians. This allegedly helps Prof. Dan Shechtman and Judge Dalia Dorner, but only allegedly: The voters are the Knesset members, not the talkbacks, and it's a secret vote, behind the screen. Shechtman and Dorner, who were given rooms in the Knesset to make their lobbying work easier, have failed to particularly impress those who are supposed to elect them. He looked down on them, and she doesn't know what she's seeking to get into.

Reuven Rivlin will likely make it to the second round, if he doesn't pull off a surprising victory in the first round. The big question is who will he face in the second round. Will it be Meir Sheetrit, thanks to his dovish political views, the support of his Hatnua party and of some members of Yesh Atid? Will it be Dalia Itzik, thanks to her deep roots in the political system and the gender solidarity? Will it be Shechtman or Dorner, thanks to the embarrassment caused by the Fouad affair and thanks to the hatred towards politicians?

Shimon Peres was an important president because of his special status in the world's capitals and because of the respect for restoring the presidency after the Katsav affair. Peres' value added artificial significance, even drama, to his successor's election. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's miserable meddling inflated its importance even more.

But we must understand that the next president will not be Peres. It's unfortunate, but this institution will return to its natural, symbolic and ceremonial dimensions.

As for MK Ben-Eliezer, now that the president's crown has been removed from his head, the suspicions against him can be returned to their rightful place. If this is just an administrative offense, it's unfair to tar and feather the man. Not every politician suspected of committing an offense is Satan.