My Scandal's Bigger than Your Scandal!

Israel's 'First Couple' with sons Avner (on his mother's right)
and Yair (on his father's left)

One nice thing about being a dual US-Israeli citizen living in Israel, is that - lately, at least - both countries are hanging out big, interesting political laundry.  And while Americans at home probably hear only the faintest detail about Israeli scandals, the US scandals are well-covered here...as are, of course, the local ones!

At the beginning of this week, the papers and evening news here were full of reporting on the drunken ravings of Yair, one of the adult (I use that term loosely) sons of Prime Minister Netanyahu.  Daddy Netanyahu has been under investigation by a top-secret police corruption crimes unit, for several suspected levels of corruption in his administration...and even, in his house! (The latter centered on the use of government funds for personal uses by Netanyahu's wife, Sara.)  So young Yair was on an alcohol - and possibly drug - fueled bar crawl with friends and wanted to hit up one friend for a few hundred Shekels to hire a prostitute.  When the friend hesitated, Yair pointed out that the friend's dad - a very wealthy and prominent industrialist - has received favors worth millions of Shekels thanks to Yair's father the PM.  For reasons that I don't think have yet been explained. there's a digital sound recording of this conversation, and of course it has been played over and over again by the broadcast media...not to mention its transcript being printed in the papers.

PM Netanyahu may or may not be guilty of corruption and graft; that's for the courts to decide.  Even if he is proven to be so, whether that will take down his government or not is an open question as members of the Knesset (Israel's parliament) enjoy certain protections from the law, not available to other citizens.  Think of it a the Israeli version of 'Executive Privilege,' although there is no Executive Branch to the government here.

But the Prime Minister gets no scorn from me, only sympathy, regarding the behavior of his son.

It's an unfortunate but widespread phenomenon, that the children of powerful people grow up feeling that their parent's power and protection should guarantee them a life free of the constraints that limit 'ordinary' people.  This goes for the children of powerful politicians, business people, even clergy. (No, this is not a complaint about my kids; Baruch Hashem, they're reasonably self-controlled, and I am no powerful clergyman in any case.)  Remember the high jinx of some children of US Presidents, not to mention powerful members of Congress?  Of course, someone who is inclined to dislike a particular politician because of their political orientation, is also likely to point to that pol's kids' behavior - if they get into trouble or scandal - as reflective of the parent's character.  But it isn't really fair.  If Netanyahu ends up being guilty of corruption, then I hope that the legal system will make him pay commensurate with his offenses.  But I take no delight in watching him and Sara squirm at their son's disgraceful behavior, and the public's fascination with same.  There's no way to avoid the children of powerful people living in a fishbowl, but at least we can try to ignore the spectacle and let them deal with their family issues themselves.