Yesh Atid announces plan to fight political corruption

Yair Lapid's new project, titled "Nachshon Plan," will try to tackle the issue of corruption as well as boost law enforcement in the country.

By UDI SHAHAM
Updated: APRIL 4, 2017 02:32
Yair Lapid (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Yair Lapid
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid and former police investigations head Yoav Segalovich on Monday announced their “Nachshon Plan” to combat corruption and strengthen law enforcement.
The plan comes as a part of Yesh Atid’s “seven-point plan” that Lapid intends to implement if elected prime minister.
Lapid claims Israel’s political system is corrupt and states the measures needed to fix it. In order to do so, he says, senior politicians need to express their support for the law enforcement authorities.
Lapid stressed that such a move is needed in order to restore the public’s faith in its representatives.
He said that every government has one single duty – to ask itself each morning how it envisions the country in five years.
“This plan is a step in this direction,” said Lapid. “It goes to the core of the issue, to the corruption of the administration in Israel and to the broken and damaged political system we have. The State of Israel needs an efficient and tough law enforcement system that fears no one. This plan will make it happen,” he added.
Lapid explained why he thinks that such a plan has not been adopted by the government.
“This current government has two ministers who were charged with offenses that characterize moral turpitude,” he said. “This cabinet broke all records of transferring coalition-corrupted budgets to MKs and parties, and restored corrupt positions like “minister without portfolio” that we canceled. The head of this cabinet is a person who says that if he is indicted he would still be prime minister.
“But Israel cannot afford a prime minister who is busy in testifying, investigations and lawyers, instead of dealing with Hezbollah and our relations with the US,” Lapid added. “It is unthinkable that we are even discussing this matter.”
Lapid then stressed that the prime minister should be limited to two terms, “otherwise it will lead us to corruption.”
Segalovich, who joined Yesh Atid in May 2016, said that although this kind of corruption comes from the politicians themselves, the cure could also come from them.
“It should come from them – our public representatives,” he said. “They should be an example for the public, act like leaders and fight this phenomenon of corruption.”
Segalovich said the culture in Israel has gotten to a point where the public accepts that their politicians are corrupt.
“We give them discounts,” he said. “We are letting ministers do things that we forbid basic training commanders from doing. We should call on the cabinet to act on this matter and to define it as a top priority.”