Israel's chronic impunity disorder
With so many politicians suspected or convicted of corruption, Israelis have given up on expecting public figures to have morals.
In preparing to write this column, I looked up the Hebrew word that best describes the cultural-moral connotation of the English word “impunity.” I had learned the Spanish “impunidad” from an Argentinian colleague while covering the horrific terror attack on the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994. He used the word to describe his country’s social ills and predicted that the attackers would never be caught. He was, indeed, correct. The literal meaning, “exemption from punishment,” barely encompasses the indifference to social ills and criminal wrongdoing, verging on indulgence, that has taken root in Israeli society.
Thousands of words have been written and spoken about the report issued Feb. 28 by the state comptroller on the 2014 Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. Bereaved parents wept as they read the document describing how the country’s leadership sent their children to their deaths with barely a thought. Israeli residents of communities bordering Gaza discovered that Cabinet ministers dozed off during discussions of the danger that terrorists could at any moment infiltrate through tunnels from Gaza and into the homes where their babies slept.
The media went wild, the opposition growled and the government deflected criticism. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shrugged off the significant failures State Comptroller Joseph Shapira cataloged, as if flicking cigar ash off his Armani suit. He was not ashamed to accuse Shapira, whom he had appointed, of hurting Israeli soldiers. The prime minister, accused of a colossal failure that resulted in the deaths of dozens of Israeli soldiers and hundreds of Palestinian children, cynically patted himself on the shoulder. He did not wait for publication of the report, saying a few days beforehand, “Unlike the state comptroller, I back the commanders of the IDF.”
Still, many Israelis remained apathetic to this news. Television viewers switched from news coverage of the report to watch “Big Brother,” cafes filled to bursting with patrons, and travel agents scurried to provide last-minute vacation packages for the upcoming Passover holiday. The average Israeli has learned how to peacefully co-exist with the pervasive reality of impunity.
