After a slew of public corruption trials and scandals, a recent survey by Transparency International found that Israel had dropped to its lowest ranking ever in an survey of corruption among the world’s nations. It ranked 36th of 183 (down from #30 two years ago). Among western nations (defined as being OECD members) it was ranked 25th of 34. When it was first surveyed in 1997, Israel was 15th among western countries. The actual mark it received was 5.8, down from 6.2 last time.
Haaretz asked the Israeli representative of Transparency:
Is Israel’s ranking likely to improve? Sagy seems skeptical. “We don’t see actions designed to halt the downward slide,” she said on Wednesday. The summer protests against the onerous cost of living in Israel also called for more transparency, she pointed out: The ties between wealth and government need to be severed, as corruption is one of the main causes of inequality.
It is, of course true that Israel has one of the widest disparities of wealth among western countries. A narrow band of oligarch-like families owns a huge percentage of the national wealth and infrastructure. And a recent Forbes Israel survey showed Israeli MKs like Silvan Shalom, Bibi Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and others to have tens of millions in assets. A survey of Israeli poverty also released today found that 10% of Israeli families go hungry and 20% suffer from “food insecurity.”
The overarching corruption-system employed to assure oligarchic control in the USA (and, I suppose, in Israel) — in USA called lobbying and campaign contributing — is somehow regarded as NOT BEING corruption, but being normal politics.
Apparently it doesn’t bother the BIGs (e.g., BIG BANKs) a bit, not a bit. Transparency, Shmancparency, who needs it?
RE: “The overarching corruption-system employed to assure oligarchic control in the USA (and, I suppose, in Israel)…” ~ pabelmont
SEE: The New Authoritarianism – From Decaying Democracies to Technocratic Dictatorships and Beyond, By James Petras, 11/28/11
ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=17273
Apologies for a complete off topic (or is it?)
Prof Idan Landau’s latest (Heb.) post deals with official state-corruption being written into law these days, all for the good cause of legally throwing non-Jews out of their Jerusalem homes to make more room for the master-race while keeping local and international public-eyes blinded.
http://idanlandau.com/2011/12/01/back-to-silwan/
Corruption = the road to treason.
With no loyalties but to $ and self-interests, Israelis AND AMERICAN JEWS (since Israel takes priority to many over, say, America) should wonder whether their leaders are truly looking out for them.
As I recall, Jonathon Pollard was a spy for Israel and transferred nuclear secrets from America to Russia killing off over a thousand covert US operatives. This was one of many secretly pro-Russian moves that Israel has pursued to “hedge” its bet on big brother keeping its criminal policies alive. To America, it sent a shot across the bow that Israel has its vital secrets and any attempts to sabotage an “alliance” would come at cost. This is why Joe Biden told a group of Florida Rabbis that they could have Jonathon Pollard, “over [his] dead f***ing body!”
It goes to show that when politicians make statements like, “there is no light between the shoulders of our countries”, what they really mean to say is: “I will sell myself to whoever and whatever in order to get re-elected and retain this power”. And guess what? Israeli politicians are the WORST when it comes to this.
So, while laws are being made to show “patriotism” and “loyalty”, consider whether the lawmakers are actually such themselves in ACTION? The answer, if being intellectually honest and interested in Israeli progression and advancement, is emphatically, “NO.”
Another read on the same information would be:
Israel Ranks Among Least Corrupt Middle East Nations
In the “Middle East and North Africa” grouping it has one of the best rankings.
Its like the old saying “Israel is the most democratic nation in the middle east”. But why compare it to the middle east nations? Thats no match, its like comparing apples and oranges. Of course they cant compare Israel to lets say european nations, because then it will expose how ‘democratic’ Israel really is.
For the record Israel is rather a ethno based society. A state for jews (according to the ruling regime itself).
Well, it’s in the middle of the pack in Europe.
Compares favorably to just about every Eastern European country.
On a larger scale, it is has a better score than about 80 percent of the countries of the world.
Well does Israel compare itself with the non-western world? An apple is still an apple regardless what you put beside it.
Well, Israel’s score is about the same as Spain, Portugal, and Slovenia and is a fair bit higher than Italy, Croatia, and the Czech Republic.
That seems like an apples to apples comparison.
Italy, one of the most corrupt countries in Europe? Is that what you’re happy to be compared to? Portugal is little better than a 3rd world country that happens to be in Europe.
But why just compare Israel to historical results & admit that it is sinking fast compared to its own previous rankings & admit that this is due to the increasing level of corruption & impunity within Israeli society?
What difference does it make if its closer to x or y regarding european nations? Its is one of the most corrupt societies among western states. Israel want to be a western state, obviously they arent on this topic.
I think Richard’s hit the nail on the head here.
What matters isn’t only the relative current position, but also the trend.
While in most western societies public opinion demands – and usually achieves – higher levels of transparency, in Israel the trend is reversed in an ever hastening pace.
In Israel, this process is an inevitability.
Israeli Jews demand – some explicitly others less so – their “fair” share of a shameless landgrab. Having “contributed” to their society by helping suppress Palestinian resistance (through military service), they demand their “fair” share of the spoils.
The trouble is that – in order to keep what’s left of an ever diminishing façade of legality – the landgrab requires concealment that obstruct transparency and thus hinder such “fairness”.
The way many (most?) Israelis see around this problem is to further politicise the judiciary and to delegitimise – maybe even illegalise – those societal watchdogs which occasionally manage to spur the legal system into some feeble action, thus hindering transparency even further.
Are Pakistan and Afghanistan yr measure with which Israeli corruption should be compared? I always thought Israel felt itself a western nation. Is it now a member of the region fr which it has sought to dissociate itself for so long?
How about the other democracies in the region that you’ve cited previously?
Israel scores significantly higher than Turkey and Lebanon, for example.
Israel has been a so called democracy for far longer than the other two countries. Lebanon only enjoyed its March Revolution two years ago and is still riven by factionalism which encorages corruption. Turkey until the current gov’t was also a pretty corrupt place ruled by elites and generals.
My personal perception was that they had improved. Is it only that there are no headline corruption cases as with Olmert and Sharon. Presidential rape would not be corruption, would it? There are far less articles of Zionist ambassadors being involved in criminal activities too. Maybe they’re better at covering up their criminality!?
[comment deleted for major comment rule violation–anti-Semitic tropes are prohibited]
whoa-michael- did most of those wall street jews have big noses too?
This comment is sickening.
I would not be sanguine about corruption headlines. There are two types of corruption: ill-gotten money are invested productively and the economy at large actually improves, and the second one that actually undermines the economy and the standard of living. China seems to be in the 1st category, and some other Eastern Tigers as well. India seems in the middle.
While Israel has some nice economic stats, one can see severe distortions which originate in political horse trading. First, while a large part of the population is “food insecure”, the tarifs on food are unusually high. Second, religious parties are bribed into joining ruling coalitions with subsidies to unproductive live styles. Religious education was a racket, and I think it did not get any more useful or wasteful. Third, Israel does not have any free market allocation of land, instead it has a rather opaque process that rewards politically connected (accidentally, Jews) and punishes the unconnected (like Beduins, basically all non Jews).
Finally, while cabinet members have their own legal problem (including Prime Minister and Foreign Minister), the cabinet activity is increasingly illegal. Most pressing issues that the cabinet is working on is
a) how to defy the Supreme Court on settlements
b) how to defy a financial agreement with PA
c) how to muzzle press that reports affairs
d) how to muzzle NGOs that report law breaking.
Israel is a Western country?