A Shanda For The Goyyim

The New York Times reports. Comments in square brackets are mine:

…While the case is an old one, the resignation of [police commissioner] Mr. [Moshe] Karadi is the latest scandal in an Israel reeling from accusations of illegal behavior among those in high office. The cases range from a possible rape charge against President Moshe Katsav to various accusations of corruption by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and by his suspended office director, who is under house arrest as part of an expanding investigation into the tax authority. The finance minister, Abraham Hirshson, is being investigated in another case involving embezzlement at a nonprofit organization.

Mr. Olmert’s predecessor, Ariel Sharon, was widely suspected of political corruption [as were Ehud Barak, Shimon Peres and Benjamin Netanyahu] and Mr. Sharon’s son, Omri, has been sentenced to jail, although he is free because his father is in a coma.

Last month, a former justice minister, Haim Ramon, was found guilty by a court of indecent behavior for kissing a young female soldier against her will, and there have been accusations of illegal behavior made against top religious figures, as well. [Including both {haredi} chief rabbis. And then we have the 'normal' corruption of the political parties, including the haredi parties, and the general stealing so common in the haredi world – tax cheating, white collar crime, fraud and theft from non-haredim.]

The spate of investigations is seen by many here as an effort to change a tradition of political corruption, especially in political fund-raising.…

Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, ztz"l, is known to have said that it is the stealing and robbery so common in Jewish life that holds back the coming of the messiah. He apparently reached this conclusion late in his life, after the passing of his wife, and he was addressing himself specifically to haredi crime, but his message applies across the board.

Whether we are speaking about Brooklyn-based mass haredi welfare fraud or the actions of senior Israeli rabbis and politicians, one thing is certain – the non-Jewish world learns to view us all as theives and liars.

The shanda for the goyyim is not that these crimes have been made public – it is that these crimes took place in a Jewish society that tolerated them.

[Hat Tip: Yisroel.]

Comments

[shmuel]

Well said. So painful. And so incerdibly ignored by our leaders.

[Ben Qor'ha (Baldwin)]

So true and so shameful.
So much more shameful from our kids.
G-d forbids that they develop a sudden interest in news Jewish be it in America or Israel.

"Whether we are speaking about Brooklyn-based mass haredi welfare fraud or the actions of senior Israeli rabbis and politicians, one thing is certain – the non-Jewish world learns to view us all as theives and liars."

Ahahahahahah1! Yes heaven forfend they get the wrong idea about us, maybe even write unflattering books about us like "Mein Kampf"? Or maybe a name that sounds real good in english, maybe "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"? or how bout "The International Jew".

Yes lets not give them the wrong idea about us.

How long did it take American Jews like you to get so stupid once you checked out of Ellis Island?

[ben Qor'ha (Baldwin)]

nobody, wrote:
"Yes lets not give them the wrong idea about us.How long did it take American Jews like you to get so stupid once you checked out of Ellis Island?"

what are you saying? nobody!