VIEWPOINT: TOWARD A NEW ETHIC

VIEWPOINT: TOWARD A NEW ETHIC

By Gil Troy
The Jerusalem Report
May 15, 2006, Vol. XVII, Number 2, p. 46

Now that he is prime minister, Ehud Olmert is going to go forward -- Kadima! -- on the corruption issue. But will he go forward toward more corruption, or lead his party, the Israeli political system, and Israeli society away from an appalling tendency to tolerate sleaze as somehow a mark of sophistication and savvy?

It is bad enough that the last Knesset set new lows in political morality, raising the specter of the penitentiary becoming the standard retirement home for parliamentary pensioners. But this ethically cloudy Knesset reflects a broader social sickness. Too many Israelis treat those who follow the rules as frierim, suckers. As a result, Transparency International’s global corruption report ranks Israel with Portugal, Uruguay, Oman, and Bostwana, hardly auspicious company. While creative improvisation breeds success in battle or hi-tech, a stable democracy requires civility, morality, and respect for the law.

Tragically, thus far, Ehud Olmert has embodied Israel's culture of sloppy, indulgent entitlement. Demonstrating another unhealthy Israeli trait, the expectation of magiyah li, I deserve it, Olmert entered into a fishy housing arrangement unseemly for any honest democratic politician, let alone a leader of the Jewish people. Selling his home to the Slim Fast diet king, S. Daniel Abraham, for $2.69 million, then renting it back for a discounted monthly rate of $2,250 may be legal, but it is also reprehensible. True leadership requires role modeling, living up to the highest ethical standards possible, rather than skunking around ethically gray zones.

Olmert should turn over a new leaf, for himself, his party, and all his colleagues. He should begin by donating a chunk of the profits from his home to tzedakah, and pay a reasonable rent determined by independent evaluators. He should then proclaim that all of Israel's citizens, rich and poor, famous and obscure, those with and without protezkia, must start living their lives as shining examples to one another. In that spirit, given prosecutors' wide discretion in white collar criminal cases, Olmert should insist the authorities implicitly give all his Knesset colleagues amnesty. This government should pursue no outstanding corruption cases, unless truly outrageous. Going forward, however, new zero tolerance policies even for the whiff of corruption surrounding a politician should be instituted. Recognizing that the fox can best design the chicken coop's security, these policies should be supervised by some of the sleazy operators who have reduced Israel's party conventions to tawdry clinics for the ethically-challenged.

In leading so boldly, Olmert would be honoring his roots – and Zionism's founding ideals. He was born in Nahalat Jabotinsky to a proud Revisionist Zionist family, followers of Ze’ev Jabotinsky. As a card-carrying, uniform-wearing leader of the Betar Youth Movement, Olmert learned and taught "Hadar." The word technically means glory or splendor. Jabotinsky used it to convey an ethic of noble self-discipline, so that all Jews would fulfill their historic destinies to live as princely paragons of "honesty, courtesy and esteem." Defining the "Ideology of Betar" in 1941, Jabotinsky wrote: "Hadar combines various conceptions such as outward beauty, respect, self-esteem, politeness, faithfulness…. Hadar consists of a thousand trifles which collectively form everyday life." Jabotinsky urged: "Do not bargain about trivialities. You, rather, should give something instead of exacting it from somebody else. Every word of yours must be a 'word of honor,' and the latter is mightier than steel."

Hadar echoes traditional Judaism's similarly high moral standards articulated so powerfully in “Pirkei Avot,” Ethics of the Fathers, and elsewhere. The Jewish concept of "hidur mitzvah," beautifying the divine commandment and bringing splendor to piety, also emphasizes the need to cultivate and celebrate goodness aggressively.

Whatever their differences, early Zionists left and right all valued humility, virtue, and morality as means to achieve individual and national greatness. The leftist Hashomer Hatzair Zionist movement offered a new "aseret hadibrot," Ten Commandments, to keep avowedly secular Jews moral. These Zionists understood that internal fortitude builds collective strength. In that spirit, Israel's leaders lived modestly, exemplified by the movingly simple living room furniture displayed in Jerusalem's Menachem Begin Center and David Ben-Gurion's humble home at Kibbutz Sde Boker.

Olmert cannot lead Israel back to those simple and impoverished times. No one is demanding a new asceticism, although a little less materialistic excess never hurts. But the epidemic of corruption infecting all levels of Israel society is a national disgrace. No one is taking the lead, seduced by the sense of magiyah li and fearful of being the frier. The situation requires hadar, the ethical splendor Zeev Jabotinsky embraced. Ehud Olmert is familiar with his old hero's timely ideals; now he has to live and spread them.

Gil Troy is Professor of History at McGill University. An updated edition of his book "Why I Am a Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity, and the Challenges of Today," has just been released and is available at www.bjec.org

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