Over the past few weeks Knesset Member Esterina Tartman (Tart, man, that is her real name) has become something of the Dan Quayle of Israel, the butt of endless political jokes and jabs by comics on TV and in the press.  It began when Tartman came out strongly against the appointment of an Arab politician as cabinet minister, someone who had once organized radical violent anti-Israel rallies.  It escalated when it turned out that Tartman had pretty much fabricated the educational credentials on her resume.  She had also been granted state recognition as a disabled person who could not work, yet was at the same time being touted by her party, Israel Beitenu, led by the Rightwing Avigdor Lieberman, for Minister of Tourism.  Israel by the way has a Ministry of Tourism for reasons that remain one of the great state secrets which no one has ever uncovered.

Anyway, Esterina became something of a national joke and in particular an embarrassment for Lieberman and his party, and in fact for the entire Israeli Right.   Lieberman trashed the idea of making her a cabinet minister and my guess is she will now be perma-muzzled if she stays on in the Knesset.

Meanwhile the hypocrisy of the Israeli media, as always the occupied territories of the Left, is on display for all to see.  First, the behavior of media snobs making fun of poor Esterina's lack of  college credentials should be considered in light of the fact that most of these same people have never gotten around to mocking or objecting to Amir Peretz's having even less schooling than Esterina.   And Esterina has not lost any important wars in recent years, unlike Moustache Pete!

But the media hypocrisy is seen even more glaringly when one compares the Quaylization of Esterina to the downright deference of the Israeli media to Knesset Member Yoram Marciano from the Israeli Labor Party.  If you do not know what I am talking about, that proves my point!

Yoram Marciano  is a Labor Party backbencher.  Marciano is a poodle for Shimon Peres and runs the staff trying now to get leftist Labor airhead Collette Avital elected as the next President of Israel, once Moshe Katsav officially resigns.  Deliciously, Marciano had been acting as the Labor Party consiglieri trying to get Katsav impeached! After all, we would not want any criminals holding office in Israel, right Yoram?

This past Wednesday, Marciano (who, as far as I know, also has no college degree) got drunk and assaulted some security guards outside a Herzliya club, near Tel Aviv.   Seems that when he gets drunk, he confuses himself for Rocky Marciano.   For three days Marciano lied himself blue, trying to lie his way out of trouble Clinton style, claiming the guards attacked HIM and not vice versa.  He filed a false police report against the guards, hoping to confuse things when they filed one against him.  Filing a false police report is a pretty serious crime (as of course is battery).

  Hollywood movie about Rocky Marciano

Now drunken leftist politicians are not exactly a novelty in Israel.   While we will not spread the full batch of police sheets out for you here, perhaps the best remembered lush was Saint Yitz, Yitzhak Rabin, himself. 

Drunken leftists are not usually things about which the Israeli media report.  But Marciano behaved as a violent hooligan and then filed false complaints with the police and kept lying, well after his drunkenness had worn off.

Marciano would have continued to try to lie his way out of trouble and to lie the police into prosecuting the victims of his own violence, except there were too many eyewitnesses who saw what had really happened.  Then today Marciano suddenly changed his story!

Seeing that no one in Israel other than maybe Shimon Peres believed that he was the victim and not the aggressor in the street brawl, Marciano admitted everything, and even asked the Knesset Ethics Committee to punish him.   Oh, how touching. The media are all over themselves, weepy-eyed, saluting his honorable admission and confession, demanding that he be treated with understanding since he has come clean, treated like a fine honest statesman who has his minor faults. 

You know, unlike Esterina.