Dan Margalit: Zelekha and Lindenstrauss are holding back the rot

Israel is awash in corruption, accused commentator and journalist Dan Margalit in an address to a conference today, and among the very few standing firm and holding back the corruption are State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss and the much-maligned accountant-general at the treasury, Yaron Zelekha.

The conference today is devoted to "Aspects of the Balance of National Strength and Security".

Never before has  he seen such a sweeping phenomenon of politicians meddling in the work of the ministerial bureaucrats in favor of cronies, Margalit told the meeting at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center.

The bureaucrats, also known as "the law and order gang", are the main hope for young entrepreneurs hoping for a chance on an even playing field, he said.

He does not share the mood of gloom that has gripped the country, Margalit said: the true danger was when the pustulent boil was hidden. But now it's been exposed and conclusions are being reached.

"I feel that the country was like a sick man who ignored his condition for too long. But now he is aware of his disease, and has started to treat it," Margalit said.

Not all corrupt behavior in government is checked by court, or conversely - not being halted by court doesn't confer legitimacy on given conduct, he noted.

"In the State of Israel of today, there are no proper public norms. The corrupt scorn court rulings and criticism in court, as long as they aren't found guilty and marked with a stain," he said.

"The warriors against corruption, the law and order gang, have to be true zealots," the journalist continued. "Otherwise they couldn't hang on and win their battles. Otherwise something in them couldn't go on. The ministers press the Zelekhas; Yaron Zelekha didn't bend but most of the Zelekhas and clerks do bend."

What he would like is for politicians to be afraid to try to influence clerks in order to sew up state tenders for cronies, Margalit explained.

Teva Pharmaceuticals (TASE, Nasdaq: TEVA) chairman Eli Hurvitz commented that unless the trend in Israel changes, what he sees at the end of the tunnel is darkness.

"I never thought that management in Israel would prove itself to be so bad," Hurvitz said in his address to the seventh Herzliya conference.

In his view, explained one of the most successful managers in Israeli history ? there is no difference between running a business and public affairs. "There is good management and there is bad management," he stated: "Unless the situation changes, I as an optimist see darkness at the end of the tunnel."

He noted that the outcome of the second war in Lebanon had been precisely the result of flawed management, which has become all too prevalent in Israel.

Hurvitz also attacked Defense Minister Amir Peretz: "I must say that a defense minister whose support among the public is only a few percent, and who decides to appoint an Arab as minister in order to be re-elected, does no good to science or to culture," he said.