- Whatever the decision of the attorney general regarding
the recommendation by the state prosecution to indict the prime minister
for his involvement in what has become known as the "Greek island
affair," Ariel Sharon has lost the moral authority and public standing
required to continue leading the country.
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- On the face of it, the facts that are known in this affair
do not leave room for doubt regarding the validity of the following conclusion:
The real estate developer David Appel hooked up with Gilad Sharon, the
prime minister's son, in a dubious deal in which he paid Gilad hundreds
of thousands of dollars and expressed a readiness to pay him up to $3 million
in exchange for what was defined as "professional advice." This
questionable deal gives off a bad odor, when one takes into account the
proven talents of Gilad Sharon and the extent of the consultancy fees promised
to him.
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- One doesn't have to be a legal expert to understand what
simple logic says: This relationship is based on sin and impure motives.
Ostensibly, it appears to be a bribery deal, in which Appel bestows a large
sum of money on the son of the prime minister (at the time Sharon was foreign
minister) in exchange for exploiting Ariel Sharon's standing to advance
his own business interests. Indeed, Appel was indicted for his part in
this deal.
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- State Prosecutor Edna Arbel yesterday completed formulation
of the indictment, which identifies the prime minister as a party who illegally
benefited from Appel's money and who, in exchange, exploited his public
position to help him advance the Greek island deal. Arbel's recommendation
to indict the prime minister in this case is the logical complement of
the decision to charge Appel over the same crime.
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- From the point of view of public ethics, Ariel Sharon
has already lost the moral authority to serve as prime minister because
of his behavior and that of his sons in the police investigations being
conducted against them. It isn't just that the many suspicious affairs
in which the members of the Sharon family are involved lead the public
to the conclusion that there is no smoke without fire, it is also that
the level of their cooperation with police investigators has strengthened
this suspicion. Now, the state prosecutor's recommendation has given official
authorization to the validity of the concern about whether Sharon's hands
are clean.
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- The validity of the state prosecutor's recommendation
now depends on the decision of Attorney General Meni Mazuz. He faces contradictory
considerations: On the one hand, he will know that adopting the prosecution's
recommendation will almost certainly mean the end of Sharon's term in office.
On the other hand, there is the principle of equality before the law, which
obliges him to judge the evidence against Sharon as he would the evidence
against any other person; and the knowledge that the professional team
in his office, which is responsible for taking such decisions, was unanimous
in its conclusion that Sharon should be indicted.
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- In the public realm, the die has been cast: Sharon is
not worthy of continuing in his position. The moral flaw he has revealed
is leading to the collapse of his standing within his party, in the eyes
of the international community, especially the United States, and of course,
within the Israeli public.
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