The magazine Firm (Hebrew) interviewed the director of the Kadima Party, Adi Steinberg. Steinberg supports passing a law that would not allow any investigation into a sitting prime minister. If there are claims or suspicions against him, the authorities would have to wait until after his term is over in order to investigate him. Only in an exceptional case would he be "investigate-able" while sitting as PM.
When asked if allegedly taking envelopes of cash would be considered an exceptional situation, he responded, "It is determined in the eye of the beholder".
So it seems, even according to his definition, the law is pretty pointless because "exceptional" is vary vague.
But aside from that, he supports this law because of what he sees happening with Olmert. He says Olmert cannot run the country properly while dealing with his investigation. Ergo, we have to disallow such investigations while the PM is serving his term.
Another option is, of course, to force his resignation. When he is under investigation, for what is invariably a serious crime, allegedly bribery, fraud, tax evasion and more, perhaps instead of saying he can't run the country so stop the investigation we should say stop trying to run the country and go deal with your investigation. Let someone else run the country.
I see no reason this needs to be viewed in only our country. I think we need to view other experiences of other countries to compare what should be done here. There is no reason we should create new laws so that one (very corrupt) guy can stay in his job.
ReplyDeleteLets see - Richard Nixon: resigned.
Bill Clinton:impeached (although somehow stayed in office). JFK:assasinated.
Any of the above is fine with me for our current PM.