Tel-Chai Nation

Here's a report on three recent and very notable cases of political corruption that have emerged, the third one just yesterday. For example, there's former minister Tzahi HaNegbi:

Former Minister Tzachi HaNegbi is to be indicted on charges of using his position as Minister of the Environment, in 2003-4, to appoint many of his political cronies to various positions. So announced Attorney General Menachem Mazuz today. Hanegbi was one of the last long-time Likud members to jump to Ariel Sharon's Kadima party several months ago.

Related charges to be brought against HaNegbi include breach of trust, election campaign bribery, and false testimony. HaNegbi said he agrees to have his parliamentary immunity removed.

And then, there's Haim Ramon, who's been charged with sexual harrassment, and is now currently suspended from a lot of parts in his role as a justice minister:

Another Kadima Party member - Justice Minister Chaim Ramon, formerly of the Labor Party - was informed today that the police feel they have sufficient evidence to indict him on charges of an indecent act towards a government employee. Attorney General Mazuz having completed his work on the HaNegbi case, will now have to decide whether or not to indict Ramon. Mazuz already cautioned Ramon several weeks ago, following the latter's 7-hour police interrogation, that he must refrain from dealing with certain aspects of his job as Minister of Justice.

And then, there's this most disturbing case, in which IDF General Chief of Staff Dan Halutz sold his stocks just shortly after the kidnapping of the two soldiers in Lebanon by the Hezbollah:

In yet a third case, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz admitted today, following a report in Maariv, that he gave orders to sell his investment portfolio just three hours after it was learned that two soldiers had been kidnapped in the north.

The abduction of the soldiers was accompanied by the killing of several soldiers, Katyusha rockets against northern towns, government deliberations that later turned into a decision to wage nearly all-out war - and a decision by Halutz, the head of the army, to sell his stocks. His 120,000-shekel portfolio ($27,300) was sold, and in fact the Tel Aviv Stock Exchanged index dropped 8% over the next two days.

Halutz criticized Maariv for what he called its "tendentious and wicked" report. "I do not intend to be dragged into an issue that casts aspersions on my integrity," he said today. "I am a citizen of this country and I have my own farm."

Politicians in the opposition do not agree. MK Gilad Erdan (Likud) said, "The Chief of Staff is not just like everyone else; he is supposed to symbolize the strength of the IDF... It used to be that leaders would ask what they can do for their country, but now apparently they ask what the stock exchange did today."

It most certainly is disgusting. The Hezbollah was unleashing hell against Israel in Lebanon, and the Hamas even earlier on Sderot from within Gaza, and all that Halutz is concerned about is his own money?

The above three aren't the only ones in Kadima who're corrupt. Even Ehud Olmert and Shimon Peres himself are under investigation for their own corruption and fraudulent activities, which I spoke about earlier here as well. There may be two more members of Kadima who're under investigation as well, but unless anyone else has info on them, I'll need time to find out exactly who they are. Until then, this is very eye-opening news, and shows just how low one can go, particularly in the second and third cases cited here.

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