Ethical Standards in Israel
Israeli Jurisprudence Lowers Israel’s Ethical Standards
The following was reported by Arutz-7 on September 17, 2006:
“Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has decided not to open a criminal investigation against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a noted pen-collector, regarding the various expensive pens given to him over the years.
“Mazuz explained that the police had failed to uncover concrete evidence indicating that the pens served as bribe.
“The charges covered the last 10-15 years, when Olmert served as Mayor of Jerusalem, Minister of Trade, and other positions.
“In the most suspicious case, a German businessman who wished to have a golf course in Eilat removed from Israel Lands Authority jurisdiction so that he could build in the area, bought Olmert a pen worth between $900 and $1,750. However, Mazuz noted that the pen was merely a ‘birthday gift,’ and that in any event, the businessman did not receive preferential treatment.
“The Hebrew news site NFC, which first reported on the ‘pens’ suspicions, also wrote that Olmert was suspected of obstructing justice by ‘removing from his house 240 expensive fountain pens that he received as bribes’ from dozens of people over the course of the past few years.”
Be this as it may, Attorney General Mazuz ruled that “A public servant is permitted to receive gifts from friends, and not every gift raises the suspicion of illegal benefits.”
At this point, let us contrast the case of Richard V. Allen, President Ronald Reagan’s first National Security Adviser. Allen accepted three expensive watches as personal gifts from Japanese friends. As a result of this disclosure—that is, of a possible conflict of interest—Allen was forced to resign his post.
What constitutes a conflict of interest, however, can be rather remote or nebulous. Here is a case the present writer learned of as a student at the University of Chicago studying British government with Professor Herman Finer. The latter recounted that in 1946, two British members of parliament were forced to resign when it was learned that they had each received a bottle of wine as a Christmas present from their respective constituents.
Even more rigorous are the ethical standards of Jewish jurisprudence. For example, a Jewish judge recused himself from a case involving a woman from whom he had received some flowers, even though the gift was given a year prior to the woman’s involvement in the litigation before him!
Contrary to Attorney General Mazuz’s position that “a public servant is permitted to receive gifts from friends,” the cases cited above posit a higher ethical standard: “A public official must avoid suspicion on the part of the public that a friend’s gift, however insignificant, might subjectively dispose the official to favor his friend’s interests.”
Pity that Jewish ethical standards, which inspired or enriched American and British jurisprudence, have been lowered by Israel’s judicial elites.
