As Israel's President and First Lady returned from a four-day visit to Spain, I could only wonder, "Why, now, with our nation seemingly on fire?"
It has been a tumultuous June: renewed terrorist attacks against Israelis, civil disobedience gone berserk, a spate of high-profile domestic killings, a torrent of sexual violence, and a seeming deterioration in our collective confidence in our political system and those who comprise it.
With frightening images of Jews stoning a helpless, bloodied Palestinian youth; with seething Israeli drivers using iron rods and steel chains to pummel Israeli protestors blocking their lanes, could anarchy be far behind?
Has not our democracy's braking system - checks and balances, commitment to law and order, and the integrity of its institutions - all but failed to keep our society from veering out of control?
With a discredited prime minister and his appointed attorney general, who is left but the president of Israel to pull the emergency brake and restore order?
There are some of us who believe the Office of the President is more than ceremonial. More than the inspiring speeches this president has delivered on Yom Hazikaron, Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Hashoah. More than the official programs he hosts and the prizes he confers. More than the championship teams he congratulates. More than the hospital and shiv'a visits he pays, or his meetings and photo-ops. More than articulating positions that are so "pareve" that they can be taken with meat, not just a grain of salt.
Some of us believe there's a reason a prime minister-elect is required to request permission from the president of Israel to form a government. That permission is a privilege, not a right.
But when the structure of that government begins to decay; when respected members of our civil service, like State Comptroller Eliezer Goldberg, speak of and meticulously detail government corruption at the highest levels, a mockery is made of the presidency and that special permission, that sense of trust, it has granted to an incoming administration.
Though that presidential green light cannot be revoked - at least constitutionally - there are Israelis and friends of Israel among us who believe in the power of the presidency of the State of Israel. Moshe Katsav must now employ that power--the weight of his office, for the sake of our nation. In my view, the President must do the following:
1. Go to the Knesset. Introduce a "Zero-Tolerance" initiative in front of every member of parliament. Tell them that no-shows to the Knesset committee on rail safety less than a week after a train disaster is an outrage. That the attendance of only three ministers to a high-profile, Prime Ministerial Committee on Domestic Violence following a tragic murder is a betrayal of their office. Tell them they'll pay a high price for absenteeism, corruption and patronage. Propose legislation for the appointment of a special independent prosecutor who will investigate criminal cases involving our most senior officials. Propose to "tear down the wall" of parliamentary immunity that shields its members from prosecution, yet allows them to participate in fateful, life-altering votes.
2. Invite the attorney general and state comptroller for urgent consultations. Without appearing to interfere with ongoing or stalled investigations, give added weight and prominence to the comptroller's annual reports -- rendered virtually impotent in recent years. Keep the public pressure on the attorney general to complete major investigations that have lagged for years.
3. Meet with the speaker of parliament. Implore the speaker to enforce more aggressively and broadly expand the parliament's Code of Ethics, at the risk of a major restructuring of the institution and the way its members are chosen. Tell the speaker that the buck stops with him.
4. Address the nation. Schedule a live, prime-time address from the President's Residence and speak directly to Israelis. Rather than appoint another presidential panel, share the pain, anger and frustration of Israelis. Take charge. Introduce a new Era of Accountability. Set deadlines, targets and conditions under the threat of a presidential call for new elections.
In the remaining two years of his presidency, how will Moshe Katsav be remembered? How will history record his legacy when it appeared all was coming loose in Israeli society? Will he be remembered as the Dan Quayle of Israeli politics, as portrayed on the Eretz Nehederet satire show? As the president shown in a newspaper photograph eluding low-income protestors via a side-door outside his fortified home in the dirt-poor city of Kiryat Malachi? Or for the empathy and eloquence he has shown, for the most part, during his tenure?
The president ought to consider Mordechai's words to Esther: "Even if you are silent now, the Jews will get relief and rescue some other way, and you and your father's house will be lost," he said. "And who knows? Maybe it was for just such an occasion that you came to the royal estate?"
In his seminal work, Israel: An Echo of Eternity, which Prof. Abraham Joshua Heschel dedicated to Zalman Shazar, one of President Katsav's predecessors, in 1967, he writes: "At this moment we find ourselves in a historic situation which cries for understanding as well as for participation on all levels of existence. There is no excuse for abstention or evasion. The house is in flames. The clock ticks on."
We must hear from the president, now. We must see leadership, now.
It has been a tumultuous June: renewed terrorist attacks against Israelis, civil disobedience gone berserk, a spate of high-profile domestic killings, a torrent of sexual violence, and a seeming deterioration in our collective confidence in our political system and those who comprise it.
With frightening images of Jews stoning a helpless, bloodied Palestinian youth; with seething Israeli drivers using iron rods and steel chains to pummel Israeli protestors blocking their lanes, could anarchy be far behind?
Has not our democracy's braking system - checks and balances, commitment to law and order, and the integrity of its institutions - all but failed to keep our society from veering out of control?
With a discredited prime minister and his appointed attorney general, who is left but the president of Israel to pull the emergency brake and restore order?
There are some of us who believe the Office of the President is more than ceremonial. More than the inspiring speeches this president has delivered on Yom Hazikaron, Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Hashoah. More than the official programs he hosts and the prizes he confers. More than the championship teams he congratulates. More than the hospital and shiv'a visits he pays, or his meetings and photo-ops. More than articulating positions that are so "pareve" that they can be taken with meat, not just a grain of salt.
Some of us believe there's a reason a prime minister-elect is required to request permission from the president of Israel to form a government. That permission is a privilege, not a right.
But when the structure of that government begins to decay; when respected members of our civil service, like State Comptroller Eliezer Goldberg, speak of and meticulously detail government corruption at the highest levels, a mockery is made of the presidency and that special permission, that sense of trust, it has granted to an incoming administration.
Though that presidential green light cannot be revoked - at least constitutionally - there are Israelis and friends of Israel among us who believe in the power of the presidency of the State of Israel. Moshe Katsav must now employ that power--the weight of his office, for the sake of our nation. In my view, the President must do the following:
1. Go to the Knesset. Introduce a "Zero-Tolerance" initiative in front of every member of parliament. Tell them that no-shows to the Knesset committee on rail safety less than a week after a train disaster is an outrage. That the attendance of only three ministers to a high-profile, Prime Ministerial Committee on Domestic Violence following a tragic murder is a betrayal of their office. Tell them they'll pay a high price for absenteeism, corruption and patronage. Propose legislation for the appointment of a special independent prosecutor who will investigate criminal cases involving our most senior officials. Propose to "tear down the wall" of parliamentary immunity that shields its members from prosecution, yet allows them to participate in fateful, life-altering votes.
2. Invite the attorney general and state comptroller for urgent consultations. Without appearing to interfere with ongoing or stalled investigations, give added weight and prominence to the comptroller's annual reports -- rendered virtually impotent in recent years. Keep the public pressure on the attorney general to complete major investigations that have lagged for years.
3. Meet with the speaker of parliament. Implore the speaker to enforce more aggressively and broadly expand the parliament's Code of Ethics, at the risk of a major restructuring of the institution and the way its members are chosen. Tell the speaker that the buck stops with him.
4. Address the nation. Schedule a live, prime-time address from the President's Residence and speak directly to Israelis. Rather than appoint another presidential panel, share the pain, anger and frustration of Israelis. Take charge. Introduce a new Era of Accountability. Set deadlines, targets and conditions under the threat of a presidential call for new elections.
In the remaining two years of his presidency, how will Moshe Katsav be remembered? How will history record his legacy when it appeared all was coming loose in Israeli society? Will he be remembered as the Dan Quayle of Israeli politics, as portrayed on the Eretz Nehederet satire show? As the president shown in a newspaper photograph eluding low-income protestors via a side-door outside his fortified home in the dirt-poor city of Kiryat Malachi? Or for the empathy and eloquence he has shown, for the most part, during his tenure?
The president ought to consider Mordechai's words to Esther: "Even if you are silent now, the Jews will get relief and rescue some other way, and you and your father's house will be lost," he said. "And who knows? Maybe it was for just such an occasion that you came to the royal estate?"
In his seminal work, Israel: An Echo of Eternity, which Prof. Abraham Joshua Heschel dedicated to Zalman Shazar, one of President Katsav's predecessors, in 1967, he writes: "At this moment we find ourselves in a historic situation which cries for understanding as well as for participation on all levels of existence. There is no excuse for abstention or evasion. The house is in flames. The clock ticks on."
We must hear from the president, now. We must see leadership, now.