Israel could easily be an outstanding exporter of scandals. Not a week goes by here without some new scandal. In the past two days alone, two new ones landed on our doorstep, one juicier than the next. True, it’s nothing like a president caught slipping out of his mistress’s apartment, wearing a black motorcycle helmet, but I think that we're getting there. Besides, let’s not forget that Moshe Katzav, the former president of Israel, is now serving out his sentence in an Israeli prison after being convicted of rape and other severe sexual offenses. When that scandal was revealed, Katzav was the serving president.

Let’s start with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Jan. 15, the newspaper Globes revealed that the prime minister had a bank account on the Isle of Jersey in the Channel Islands. Jersey is considered a reliable, safe and quiet tax haven. Netanyahu had his account there from 1999 to 2003, during which time he held no public position in Israel. According to the prime minister’s office, all activity in that account stopped in 2002, when Netanyahu returned to the political arena and was appointed a minister in [Ariel] Sharon’s cabinet. The account remained in existence for some time after that, but it just had a few pounds in it to cover bank fees and nothing else. The bottom line is that it was all legal. There was no problem with Netanyahu’s activity. What do you want from the man?

Plenty of journalists know the story of that bank account. The information first made the rounds among Israeli journalists several years ago (full disclosure: I was also given the documents). Since all the activity turned out to be legal, we saw no need to make a big deal out of it. Netanyahu already faces enough harsh criticism in the press from those parts of the media that he has not yet managed to take over, so there was no reason to try and force an issue on him. On the other hand, after reconsidering it, I now think that Globes was right for publishing it anyway.

First of all, there is the issue of public appearances. Last decade, when he served as finance minister, Netanyahu was the one who imposed the harshest economic measures on the Israeli public. He is considered to be the Israeli Margaret Thatcher. Set against this background, his own financial activities, his lavish lifestyle and his exaggerated expense accounts at the prime minister’s residences and during his trips abroad are all clearly in the public interest. Let the public hear about it and judge for itself.