“Do I look shook up?” responded Israeli Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino July 4, when a journalist asked him about a serious scandal that was beginning to send another tremor through the police force. At the time, details of the affair were banned from publication, so speculation was causing quite a commotion on the social networks. Danino had apparently sought to exhibit indifference to minimize the gravity of the situation, the details of which were released two days later, having a harsh impact on the organization he heads.

As it turns out, Danino really should have been “shook up” after Ronel Fisher, one of the country’s top lawyers, was arrested after apparently receiving a suitcase containing $150,000. Fisher supposedly got the money from Alon Hassan, former head of the Ashdod Port workers committee who is suspected of bribery. Hassan told police that Fisher, who was once his lawyer, had offered to pay senior police officers to drop cases against his clients.

According to Hassan, the police Fisher was referring to are the senior officers of the elite Lahav (Unit) 433, the nationwide police unit that investigates corruption and organized crime. Even if only a small part of this affair turns out to be true, this scandal will rattle the police force. There is no more obvious indicator that an organization is sick and corrupt than when corruption penetrates its “holiest of holies.”

Lahav 433 was created in 2008 as the Israeli equivalent of the FBI. Huge sums of money were invested in it, and it was promoted as a symbol of the war against corruption. Over the past year, however, the unit has became a symbol of the sickness pervading the Israeli police force.