Someone convicted of abusing the public's trust should not seek to get his hands on public coffers again.
By JEFF BARAKaryeh deri 224.88 AJ(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
In 1963, Britain was rocked by a sex scandal. John Profumo, the defense minister in the Conservative government and a married man, had a brief relationship with a showgirl called Christine Keeler, who was also the mistress of Capt. Yevgeny Ivanov, the naval attache at the Soviet Embassy in London and a spy. When news broke of the affair, the mixture of adultery and espionage in this era of Cold War tension and strict sexual mores, the British public was deeply shocked.
Profumo, initially, denied the reports. He told the House of Commons that there was "no impropriety whatever" in his relationship with Keeler. Three months later, however, Profumo confessed he had misled Parliament and resigned. By the end of the year, prime minister Harold Macmillan resigned on the grounds of ill health, exacerbated by the crisis, and in the general elections of autumn 1964 the Conservatives lost to the Labor Party.
The Clivedon country-house party where Profumo and Keeler first met was organized by an osteopath named Stephen Ward, who soon after was charged with living off the immoral earnings of Keeler and her friend, Mandy Rice-Davies, another young "showgirl." Rice-Davies became famous at the trial when, in response to the prosecution's question that one of her clients, a British lord, had denied even having met her, stated: "Well he would, wouldn't he?" Rice-Davies was shameless. She traded on her notoriety and later, after marrying Israeli businessman Rafi Shauli, moved to Tel Aviv, opening night clubs and restaurants bearing her name, and became a central figure on the Israel social scene for many years.
But this article is not about Rice-Davies, Keeler or even Profumo. It's about Aryeh Deri. It's true that the former Shas leader and cabinet minister has never been accused of adultery or spilling state secrets in bed, but the charismatic politician has been accused, and found guilty, of taking bribes while director-general of the Interior Ministry and later interior minister. For this crime, Deri received a three-year prison sentence and a conviction that carries with it the status of moral turpitude.
Deri, like other convicted felons, wants to rehabilitate himself, which, in and of itself, is a worthy desire. Unfortunately, he sees a return to public life as mayor of Jerusalem as his means of rehabilitation and is now desperately seeking a way round the law which prohibits any person convicted of an offense carrying moral turpitude of running for election for a seven-year period after his release from prison. For Deri, this period runs out in the middle of next year, too late for this November's municipal elections. Thankfully, former Supreme Court justice Eliezer Rivlin, who chairs the Central Elections Committee, has refused to discuss Deri's petition to reduce this waiting period, although, worryingly, Deri still has the option of seeking President Shimon Peres' help in erasing his conviction.
THE THOUGHT of Deri running for Jerusalem mayor is deeply troubling, and not (at least, in this context) because of the haredi party he represents. When Deri was jailed, the cooling-off period for someone convicted of a crime carrying moral turpitude before being allowed to run for public office was five years. This period was lengthened when Deri was sitting behind bars mainly because of his despicable behavior during his trial. He remained silent during his interrogation, dragged out the court proceedings for as long as he possibly could and then, after sentencing, led a wave of protest against the whole court system. Instead of accepting his punishment for, let's not forget, taking bribes, Deri lashed out against those upholding the law, a trend that has since been followed by disgraced president Moshe Katsav and the present Vice Prime Minister Haim Ramon, whose return to public life after kissing a young female soldier by force, is also regrettable.
In fact, even after the cooling-off period runs out, Deri should not contemplate running for public office. It is unpalatable that someone convicted of abusing the public's trust should once more seek to get his hands on public coffers, and the thought that Jerusalem, of all cities, should be run by an ex-con is simply unconscionable. Like Rice-Davies, Deri is shameless. Had he any sense of decency, he would understand that someone as deeply compromised as himself simply cannot offer himself up for election, even if there are fools enough to vote for him.
This does not, however, mean that a disgraced politician cannot redeem his reputation. After resigning in disgrace, John Profumo kept a dignified silence, telling one correspondent in 1995: "Since 1963, there have been unceasing publications, both written and spoken, relating to what you refer to in your letter as 'the Keeler interlude.' The majority of these have increasingly contained deeply distressing inaccuracies, so I have resolved to refrain from any sort of personal comment, and I propose to continue thus." Instead, he worked, voluntarily, among the poor in London's East End, cleaning toilets at the Toynbee Hall charity before being persuaded to use his talents to raise funds for the charity. For this, he was made a commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth in 1975, signalling his return to respectability.
Does anyone have a mop for Deri?
The writer is a former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.
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