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May 13, 2014
is Olmert a traitor?
When the judge sentenced former PM Ehud Olmert to 6 years in prison, he said that one who takes bribes is not simply corrupt, but he is a traitor..
Calling him a traitor seems a bit harsh. He is a criminal, he is corrupt, he is immoral.. but a traitor? did he sell State secrets to Iran?
Ironically enough, after Olmert's participation in the Disengagement and then the Gaza and Lebanon II wars, calling Olmert a traitor would have landed a person in jail. Now, for financial and moral crimes, calling him a traitor is legally mandated.
Calling him a traitor seems a bit harsh. He is a criminal, he is corrupt, he is immoral.. but a traitor? did he sell State secrets to Iran?
Ironically enough, after Olmert's participation in the Disengagement and then the Gaza and Lebanon II wars, calling Olmert a traitor would have landed a person in jail. Now, for financial and moral crimes, calling him a traitor is legally mandated.
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The court made it clear that they used the category 'traitor' to mean betraying the public trust.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing that in this "information age", it seems impossible to find a full quote of the sentencing statement. Maybe I'm just a bad searcher. Anyway, this is the best I could find, from Times of Israel:
ReplyDelete"The crime of bribery can pollute civil service,” Rozen said. Bribery, he continued, “destroys governments,” and is “one of the worst crimes” in the penal code. The judge added that public officials who take bribes are tantamount to “traitors” because they betray the trust of the public.
Most of the other reports translated this as "akin to a traitor."
In any case, I think this is a far cry from saying "Olmert is a traitor." It's also a judge speaking, in the abstract, in sentencing a former prime minister man has been duly convicted of serious crimes. I do not think the comparison made in this post is valid.
its easier to find the actual quote in Hebrew :מקבל שוחד מעורר יחס של תיעוב - הוא בבחינת בוגד. ראש העיר נטל שוחד"
ReplyDeleteThanks! I thought of trying that, but too lazy. The partial quote you wrote helped me get to the full quote I remember hearing on the radio:
Deleteמקבלי השוחד מעוררים יחס של תיעוב ובכוחם להשניא ולהמאיס מוסדות המדינה על הציבור.עובד הציבור הנוטל שוחד משול למי שניתץ אבן פינה בעבודתו. הנוטל שוחד הינו בבחינת בוגד, איש מעל הבוגד באמון שניתן בו, אמון שבלעדיו לא יכון, יקום ויהיה שירות ציבורי מתוקן.
In context, I think the judge was using the word "Traitor" in the sense of a public figure betraying the public trust given over to him. Which is not the same as a traitor in the sense of a person selling secrets to Iran.
But I guess the judge should have known how the media, lazy and superficial as it tends to be, would run with the word "traitor".
Reminds me of how Nixon, long before he was President, once called Harry Truman and Sam Rayburn traitors to the high principals of the Democratic party - something like that, again the operative word was "traitor." Truman and Rayburn took high umbrage, and held a grudge against Nixon for the rest of their lives. I guess the lesson is, you've got to be careful about that word "traitor," no matter what the context.
Don't know why I'm going on about this, just in a kvetchy mood I guess!