The Integrity Watch

The scandals surrounding Olmert have the Israeli public searching for a leader with integrity.

by Michele Chabin
Israel Correspondent

Jersualem — You could forgive Israelis (especially American transplants) if a Bob Dylan lyric was ringing in their ears this week as the post-Ehud Olmert era got under way: “Searchin’ high, searchin’ low / Searchin’ everywhere I know / Askin’ the cops wherever I go / Have you seen dignity?”

In the country’s public squares, eateries and malls, which are packed due to the summer vacation and relatively calm security situation, Israelis are saying good riddance to Olmert, the prime minister who brought them the 2006 second Lebanon war and more scandals than they can track. Amid serious corruption allegations, Olmert announced last week he would not seek the Kadima Party top spot and would resign after the party’s primary next month.

And

what Israelis seem to want more than anything, just like the narrator in Dylan’s song, is dignity. Or more precisely, integrity, the word of the moment in Israel.
In a Haaretz op-ed this week, columnist Amir Oren summed up the public craving for positive change by calling “not for a leader, but leadership.”

“If there is an interim solution to Israel’s problems during the period of disengagement from the Olmert government, it does not lie in worshiping any supreme leader,” Oren wrote. “There are no gods: not Livni, not Barak, not Netanyahu, not Mofaz. What is needed is a team that knows how to rise above personal considerations and to operate with good judgment and integrity.”

This, Oren said, “may be too much to ask of politicians, but we must not be satisfied with less.”

The public disdain seems to be coming from all corners, ranging from the far left (which says the prime minister accomplished nothing vis-à-vis the Palestinians) to the far-right (which fears Olmert’s sudden willingness to enter into negotiations with Syria, among other things), as if, as one pundit put it, “Olmert was the ultimate Equal Opportunity Disappointer.”

The national consensus surrounding Olmert does not extend to the future, to the question of who should lead the country. In theory, the candidate who wins the Kadima Party election on Sept. 17 will serve as prime minister until the spring 2009 national elections provided he or she succeeds in cobbling together a new government. But many Israelis, particularly those on the right who support opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu or another, unnamed political hawk, want to hold national elections immediately.

A recent poll in Yediot Achronot showed Likud, led by Netanyahu, winning 30 Knesset seats — one-quarter of all seats — compared to 29 Kadima seats under Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, one of two candidates vying for Olmert’s post as head of Kadima, along with Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz. Another poll, in Haaretz, showed Livni ahead of Netanyahu, by a 26-to-25-seat margin. Still another poll, this time in Maariv, showed Netanyahu beating Livni by a margin of 33-20 Knesset seats.
Efraim Inbar, director of the BESA Center for Strategic Studies, at Bar Ilan University, said Israelis “want a prime minister who won’t be investigated by the police every week. They want someone who will be able to win a war if necessary. We want a steady hand at the helm, and Olmert is seen as a great disappointment. He was a bon vivant who enjoyed his life and believed that everyone else is tired of conflict. Personally, I think people will find the strength to fight for what’s important to them. Jerusalem, for example.”

While Livni is viewed as “Mrs. Clean,” Inbar said, “I’m not sure that will bring her a primary victory. [Shaul] Mofaz is a more seasoned politician and, as transportation minister, has many more goodies to give out.”

When it comes to selecting a new prime minister, David Eisenstadt, a tour guide and official at a Jerusalem nonprofit, wants someone with personal integrity.

“The thing that offended me most about Olmert, even more than the scandals, was the fact that he didn’t assume responsibility for the second Lebanon war. He should have resigned. In Israel people are taught to accept responsibility, not to dodge it, and I found that reprehensible,” Eisenstadt said in his south Jerusalem office.

Like virtually all Israelis, Eisenstadt, a father of three in his 40s, dreams of a prime minister who has a great deal of military-security experience and who is also a gifted negotiator. He acknowledges that the mix may prove elusive.

“Ehud Barak has the military skill but was disappointing in the summer of 2000 when he negotiated with the Palestinians. He made a running retreat from Lebanon, which may have taught the Palestinians how to run the second intifada. Still, nobody can deny that Barak has military experience.”

Eisenstadt called Livni “promising,” but said, “we don’t know enough about her.” Mofaz, he said, “also seems interesting, but we don’t know whether he’s a good negotiator.” Netanyahu “has helped the economy but hasn’t done a good job looking after weaker elements of the people. Prosperity shouldn’t happen on the backs of the poor.”

Nick Sporek, 32, an Internet content editor, said he’s compiled a list of “things that need fixing” in Israel.

“This place is a mess in every aspect,” said Sporek, who emigrated from Canada to Jerusalem three years ago. “Stopping corruption is at the top of my list. Take the Shas Party. They claim to have a religious agenda — I’m religious myself — but it seems they’re more interested in money and power.”

Sporek is equally critical of the Chief Rabbinate, which, he said, “has made a mockery of itself, and, in my opinion, actually makes some people less religious because they feel so alienated.”

Danny Schlyfestone, a 55-year-old sound engineer turned brewer, is looking for a prime minister “who will take advantage of the windows.”

Windows of opportunity, Schlyfestone said in a phone interview from his home in the Ein Hod Artists’ community up north, “could come from the West Bank thanks to the split between Hamas and Fatah. They could come from Syria.”

The brewer, whose business was deeply hurt during the second Lebanon war (“Nobody came out for beer”), accused Olmert of starting the war “to prove his leadership. It was an hysterical move and none of the objectives were realized.”

A proud throwback to the ‘60s, Schlyfestone said he hopes “we can come to some kind of settlement” with the Arabs. “I happen to feel very strongly that people with a capability for language and words should be able to come to some kind of solution.”
He’s open to making Jerusalem an international city but would never return the Golan Heights to Syria.

As for prime ministerial hopefuls, “I’m not afraid of anybody,” Schlyfestone said, “because any kind of radical thought process might just work here. We’ve tried everything else and look where it’s brought us.”

Or as Dylan’s narrator puts it: “So many roads, so much at stake / So many dead ends, I’m at the edge of the lake / Sometimes I wonder what it’s gonna take / To find dignity.”

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization