The Honest Politician

By Guy Rakover

Last night, as I was walking home from a trip to the 24-hour convenience store at the corner and I saw a man in the street yelling about politics. He said, “Everyone is corrupt! It’s all about money and politics and that is why the Messiah does not come!” The man seemed satisfied with himself for voicing his opinion and then quieted down.

There is a lot of truth to what he said, in the sense that we do not have a peaceful balance inside the nation because we are not honest to each other. Politicians are openly and justifiably in most cases caught bending the rules or abusing their power. A country of favoritism, “protectsia” as it is called in the local slang, causes the continued corruption and distortion of our system.

We are to blame. What do we do when we see that politicians are corrupt? We continue voting for them. As long as we continue to vote into office corrupt partisan leaders, who place the importance of their own party’s or individual agendas ahead of the good of the state then it will only get worse. We are already at a point where most Israelis accept it as “the cost of doing business,” and to some degree they are right. What are our options? Not to vote? Should we become like most other democracies around the world where only around 40% of registered voters participate in elections.

This is not our nature. We as a people participate in the day-to-day events in our state, out of interest or necessity, and are active in its political future. The problem is that the average voter looks at the options in the voting booth and chooses the lesser of evils.

Our fathers’ generation has failed to produce a truly visionary and patriotic leader. Now in the wake of the Winograd report, we call to arms to replace one corrupt leader with another. Who would win in an election? Natenyahu? Barak? Both held office and both failed to truly bring a new direction to the state. Neither is clean from scandal, yet they return. A friend of mine once observed that Israel is probably the only democracy in the world where a leader can leave the limelight of politics, shrouded in scandal, and then return with a clean slate no less then a decade later.

Unfortunately, until we have a leader worth voting for we will continue to choose the one that we think, with our limited pool of information on what is truly going on, will cause the least damage. Israelis want a good leader, a leader with a true vision and a conscience that will hold him honest. That wont cheat or steal simply because it is wrong, and that by doing so he violates his oath of office. And when this person appears our population will come out in droves to support him.

This is the irony. The present politicians battle it out through dirty methods and believe that it is worth it in order to get into office. The truth is that if one truly honest visionary leader would stand up and appeal to all he would change the face of the state and the nation as we know it.