Last update - 00:00 20/06/2007
AG: Israel abandoning its values, national symbols collapsing
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz told university graduates Wednesday that the State of Israel's value system was in decline, and warned his audience that Israelis that could not ignore the phenomenon in the hope that it would "go away."
"The national symbols are collapsing one after the other, and the feeling is that the state is letting go of its values one by one," Mazuz said in an address to law graduates at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan.
Israel is a "state under warning," he said. "The leaders are incapacitated, public figures are coming in and out of [police] interrogation rooms."
"Polls show a growing erosion in the public's faith in the various ruling systems, including the judicial system," he continued, adding that Israel is experiencing a leadership crisis that has caused low spirits and spiritual exhaustion across the country.
"These are feelings of a loss of direction, depression, emotional detachment and loss of meaning - and these feelings are very dangerous," he said.
"A situation of collective desperation could cause the deterioration of society to the point of government instability, a sense of general disintegration, and a desire to break the rules like in a jungle."
He compared the country to a body whose "immune system is giving warning signs that extensive therapy is required."
"We must choose whether to fight to preserve the character of the nation as a state whose citizens respect the values of adherence to the law and values of tolerance and equal rights, or alternately sit by and watch from the sidelines."
Mazuz said that the country must act to halt the moral decline and loss of direction, stressing that ignoring the situation was no solution.
"We must choose whether to help push the car that has slightly derailed and become stuck in the mud. If we turn away, the ugliness will not just go away. We must aim for the kind of leadership that will be worthy of its constituents," Mazuz concluded.