Yesterday's Maariv had a slashing piece on the Olmert corruption scandal, by Ofer Shelah, asserting that Diaspora Jewry's romantic projections on Israel are undermining Israeli leadership. Shelah goes beyond corruption to the "way we [Israelis] perceive our lives here." And on from there to the effect of the American lobby, in the person of Morris Talansky, the Long Island millionaire who is said to have bribed Olmert.
Shelah would seem to be angry about the weirdly-stateless reality created by American Jews who come and go, talking about Jericho…
(In translation. Sorry, no link, this is from a canary) Money quotes:
"…only in a Diaspora Jewish community, where there is no state, only catch-as-you-can by occasional synagogue sextons, public figures behave this way, and see it as self-evident. Only in a place where there is nothing that is unthinkable, where the public does not punish for unthinkable acts, can a minister and mayor dare, ask– demand– that his bills be paid, his airline class be upgraded, and he and his wife travel to Italy at the expense of a stranger and in cash….
"Let's admit the truth: This is not the state that we came to establish here, it is a frightened community that huddles together and tells itself stories about a terrible existential threat, that everything must be postponed until we deal with it…
"Morris Talansky, a Diaspora Jew who merely wanted to bask a little in the warmth of his state across the sea, revealed our nakedness yesterday-and that is much more important than the futureless political life of Ehud Olmert."
