Everything is for sale

Since its birth in ancient Greece, modern democracy has been based on moral conventions. That is the source of its strength, but also the cause of its weakness. The essence of democracy's existence lies in the moral power of the idea of equality, and in the citizen's trust in those charged with preserving the precious right to rule with the power of the law, a system in which the citizens themselves or their elected representatives took part.

Therefore, it is vital that the roads to the top be clearly visible and immaculate. Indeed, the citizen's willingness to preserve democracy and its institutions is the only defense that the regime has, and therefore is its most valuable asset.

When the political elite loses its credibility, the crumbling of democracy is just a matter of time and circumstance. For this reason, corruption in all its forms is like a poison administered systematically. There are different poisons, but the outcome is the same, as different kinds of corruption all weaken and ultimately destroy the body politic.

Since the first democratic regimes took root in late 19th-century Europe, the question of integrity has proved to be their Achilles heel. Democracy, it was said, was no more than a smoke screen, behind which the real performance unfolds. It was neither the citizen casting a ballot nor the elected officials sitting in the parliament who held the reins, but rather the truly powerful: interest groups and the wealthy, on whom politicians depend.

Even in Israel, if we ignore reality, the same charges will eventually be made, and the day when our streets resonate with cries history remembers in disgrace - "they are all thieves," "clean out the stables" - may be closer than we think.

Indeed, the most troubling phenomenon exposed by the current corruption probes is an unbearable lowering of the threshold of risk, deriving from acceptance of criminal behavior. The assumption that breaking the Elections Funding Law is a minor offense, something to be regarded with leniency, if not a smile, is destructive and reprehensible: Buying political power is just as corrupt as receiving bribes directly, with or without envelopes, for personal consumption.

There is nothing wrong with wealth as long as it does not try to invade areas where it should not be: Decay begins to spread when capital is used to buy power and influence over the political process. Then money undermines a central tenet of the only kind of equality we now have. Of the other kinds of equality - in education, health care, a worthwhile life in old age - no one even speaks anymore.

If, in addition, society comes to accept a serious infringement of political equality, many may feel growing qualms about the very right of the system to exist.

The corruption of rulers is nothing new, but has flourished recently, because the climate has become even more amenable. The worship of tycoons is deepening - see, for example, the disgraceful phenomena that accompanied the ridiculous charade known officially as the President's Conference. The political elite grovels at their feet, without regard to party affiliation or position.

It is no accident that in his time of need, Ehud Olmert turned to Silvio Berlusconi, the great disgrace of European politics. The ordinary citizen learns from this that everything is for sale. In this sense, there is an objective link - however oblivious its perpetrators may seem - between the justice minister's complaint that a policy of excessive enforcement was victimizing public figures; the hesitancy of the attorney general since he pounced on the State Prosecutor's Office in the Greek island affair; and the well-known attacks by Olmert himself on the state comptroller and Olmert's aides against the police.

The ceaseless assault on the Supreme Court, coming from different directions, only strengthens the sense that a dark cloud hangs over all of the bodies that must resist the murky tide threatening to erode what still remains of the country's norms of public integrity.

What should be done? In the short term, the absolute independence of the law enforcement system must be guaranteed; the justice minister's campaign, which could might end up letting politicians take over law enforcement and the judiciary, must be halted. In a second stage, steps must be taken to ensure that the state prosecution is headed by men and women of strong conviction and commitment to their mission, people no less talented than the expensive private attorneys, and therefore deserving the same compensation as judges.

In the third stage, the election system and election laws must be changed: The people whom we choose to elevate must answer to their voters, and not to those who funded them. We need people for whom politics, even when it becomes their profession, will not be a means of getting rich.