UBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" Suckered by Bishara -- Mon, Dec 6, 2010       29 Kislev, 5771       --         Breaking News Diplomacy & Politics Defense National News Middle East International Iranian Threat Trade Sports Sci-Tech idea Columnists Editorials Op-Eds Letters Jewish World Jewish News Jewish Features Judaism Cafe Oleh Lifestyle Arts & Culture Food & Wine go Health Features Insights & Features Week in review Blogs In the news Judaism From the Middle East Lifestyle Aliyah Science and Technology Premium Zone The Jerusalem Report run 20 Questions e-paper Ivrit Magazine Metro In Jerusalem Christian Edition My JPost Subscription Center Newsletter RSS feeds News Ticker Facebook Twitter Classifieds Français More Services JPost Store JPost Games Israel Hotels Vacation Rentals Green Israel Car Rentals Learn Hebrew Israel Guide Links Perform Miracles JP daily e-paper לימוד אנגלית Astrology Sitemap      Breaking News     JPost.com Opinion Editorials   .large_body p, .large_body span { font-size: 18px; } .small_body p, .small_body span { font-size: 12px; } Suckered by Bishara By JPOST EDITORIAL  11/13/2010 22:36 Intimidating abuse by Arab MKs doesn’t distribute their constituents yet only radicalizes them, to the detriment of all of us. Talkbacks (13)   Amid considerable pandemonium – even by the standards of our rarely quiet Knesset – the House Commission last week approved a preliminary bill intended at denying publicly financed allowances to any serving or previous MK who fails to honor police or court summonses or who dodges duly imposed penalties. The offenses involved need be serious enough to warrant at least a five-year sentence. The bill must pass through two plenum readings before it becomes law.

Even though the lawmakers named no names, the draft – already approved last July by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation – has come to be recognized as the “Bishara Law.”

Fugitive from justice ex-MK Azmi Bishara (Balad) has collected over NIS 512,000 in pension and “adjustment” grants since he fled the state in 2007 to elude interrogation on charges that he actively abetted Hizbullah throughout the Second Lebanon Battle– that he passed information to it and was on its payroll.

While awarded a monthly NIS 7,248 pension at Israeli taxpayers’ expense, Bishara has used up the past few years heaping scathing scorn on Israel and recommending armed struggle against it. In a recent Al Jazeera op-ed, he advocated the “dismantling of Zionism,” replacing Israel with “a democratic Arab say” and not budging on the “ correct of Return” and “the Arabness of Jerusalem.”

The unavoidable question for Israelis is whether they ought to continue footing Bishara’s bills. The Knesset and the courts have been grappling with this conundrum ever since Bishara went on the lam.

By the yardstick of plain common sense, continuing to fund Bishara appears like the ultimate imbecility. However well perceptions of justice and painstakingly constructed legal frameworks don’t necessarily mesh. Hence the courts foiled all tries hitherto to cease subsidizing Bishara. Two years ago, the Supreme Court required the state to hold paying him since the law does not authorize depriving former MKs of their pensions.

The current bill is aimed at plugging the loophole.

THIS MAY seem problematic. A priori there’s something unpalatable in a law seen to target a given individual.

Additionally it can be argued that wage-rights, earned by an individual in the past, ought not to be subject to subsequent punitive measures. Finally, the fact is that Bishara has not actually been found guilty of anything; he can, therefore, plead the presumption of innocence.

In an ideal world, we would all prefer to avoid having to promulgate this kind of legislation. The distress is that Bishara brazenly and provocatively helps makes this so much less than an ideal world.

Bishara, his attorneys, and supporters resort to human rights terminology in his defense, while conveniently overlooking the fact that Bishara was accused of treason through wartime and fled as soon as confronted with some of the evidence amassed against him. He himself, therefore, undermined the presumption of innocence. Nothing, furthermore, prevents him now from returning and standing trial to resolve the matter definitively.

As things stand, it is grotesquely implausible to expect the state, and by extension its taxpaying population, to underwrite this inflammatory fugitive.

Allowing Bishara to exploit the current legal loopholes – and make ourselves compulsively and intentionally oblivious to the nature of the transgressions Bishara is accused of – we become complicit in his exploit to play us for suckers. There is a point where such behavior descends into inexcusable, self-harming gullibility, and with Bishara we have reached it.

THERE IS another highly perturbing aspect to the debate. All Arab MKs who participated in the Knesset committee deliberations solidly sided with Bishara and boycotted the final vote. Moreover, they injected extremism into the debate. Jamal Zahalka of Bishara’s Balad list went so far as to determine that committee chairman Yariv Levin is “worthy of death,” among other compliments like “fascist,” “racist,” “insane,” bloodstained” and “a moral midget.”

Deplorably, such outrageously unparliamentary invective garners votes aplenty in the Arab sector. It also underscores the vulnerability of our sovereignty and democracy. Intimidating abuse by Arab MKs doesn’t serve their constituents but only radicalizes them, to the detriment of all of us.

That, of course, may be precisely what Bishara and his cohorts desire. If anything, this behooves our democracy to defends itself against those who would exploit its tolerance in decree to ruin it.

More about:Jamal Zahalka, Azmi Bishara, Al Jazeera, Hezbollah   Subscribe to our Newsletter to receive news updates directly to your email     Tweet         Talkback Add a Talkback Report Abuse Read all Talkbacks 13. Chelem Author:   Tom Country:   USA11/23/2010   06:49Israel should rename itself Chelem, after the mythical shtetel wherein the inhabitants were well for their stupidity. A MP who is accused of treason collects a pension ,other MP's who participate in an anti Israel flotilla are never censured , illegal immigrants from Arab nations cross a porous border ,and Israeli Arabs bring in Palestinian spouses.

12. The Court Need to Go Author:   Morton Friedman Country:   USA11/14/2010   22:36Any court that allowed the litigation on behalf of Bishara without requiring him to submit to the jurisdiction of the court is incompetent.

11. arab MP`s Author:   benji Country:   usa11/14/2010   17:42this exactly their mission -the don`t care about humanity or dignity they are on a mission to destroy and demolish the western socities no matter where whether it is France ,England or Israel it is just the latest is the first on their way and they all support the Islamist terrorist

10. arab MP`s Author:   benji Country:   usa11/14/2010   17:36you /we should really check all of the Arab members of the Knesset unfortunataly they are all the same namely a fifth column

9. "Presumption of innocence"? Author:   Jeremy Country:   11/14/2010   16:35The presumption of innocence applies only to those who display up in court and plead innocent. Fugitives from justice, such as Azmi Bishara, have pleaded guilty with their feet.

8. Azmi Bishara Author:   Jak Country:   USA11/14/2010   16:20Just gash the funding and have him sue the State, Then see him in Court, you dummies!

7. dock em Author:   dennis snapper Country:   israel11/14/2010   14:30Why not get the money back from all the Arab traitors who side with Bishara? Better yet, why not throw them all out on their butts, and let them work for a living. How can Israel ever come to a peace agreement with rats like this in the government?

6. Democracy by name but... Author:   harry hotspur Country:   england11/14/2010   13:27..a fool's paradise by nature. The Knesset for example is just an asylum for sleazy self-serving political hacks who have been favourably placed by their parties according to personal influence. Ability and honesty play no part in this fraudulent process. In reality it is just a house of cards. It is due time for the Israeli public to hold a stand against this electoral scam and demand that it is they that should have the power to choose and elect their Knesset representatives. That is accurate democracy in action.

5.quiet Asleep Israel? Author:   Maura Collins Country:   Ireland-Italy.11/14/2010   09:00Alter the law so he must be in country to receive pay. Or freeze payments pending an outcome of a trial. Or pay him in IOU's or beads, or better yet, cease to pay him at all. What's he going to do, sue you? For Zahalka to refer to Yariv Levin in such improper terms he must be removed from his seat without a dime in pay. Better yet, remove all Arab MK's as their aim is to destroy Israel from within-while on the public payroll. Treason trumps MK's inciting the destruction of the country paying them. What is incorrect with Israel when she pays a murderer for the bullet he will use to slay her with?

4. What' with the seat Author:   Edwin Country:   USA11/14/2010   07:38I'd keep paying the money on condition that none of his arab "colleagues" takes his seat. Better yet - pay all of his like-minded Arab "ministers", (you can not honestly be a MK and in the mean time openly(!) do harm and bring about Israel's destruction) on condition they never exhibit up in Knesset and better yet leave the country they so openly despise (along with their extended households ). Kach was right after all..

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