Wednesday, February 18, 2015

The state comptroller's double standard - Mati Tuchfeld



by Mati Tuchfeld


The report on former President Shimon Peres, however, is very pedestrian. Its language is anything but sensational, although it leaves one question unanswered: How did the budget for the President's Residence surge 20 percent every year to a figure of 60 million shekels ($16 million)? With all due deference to the comptroller, why did he employ delicate language on Peres?

You would think the opposition parties would be the first to seize on the state comptroller's report on the expenses at the Prime Minister's Residence. But on Tuesday, when the report was finally made available, they were not hungry for a fight. The criticism they sounded lacked any emotion. They seemed to be hesitating.

A few weeks ago, the opposition parties took off their gloves and pounded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara for the bottle-deposit money they allegedly mishandled. But lo and behold, the Likud poll numbers shot up in the wake of that merciless attack. 

This time around, the opposition figured it would be better to let the media do its bidding while it assesses the situation. Although they are not sure whether there is any electoral gain to be made in this affair, there is one thing they are certain of: there is zero chance this story will still be generating headlines by the time voters go to the polls on March 17th. 

Once the embargo had been lifted on Tuesday, news outlets parsed every word of the report. Live panels started chattering on the radio, on television, and on the Internet. Not a comma was left unscrutinized by the pundits. But now, with nothing left unsaid (even the former superintendent at the residence has spoken to the nation), this report will be filed in some cabinet and fade from our collective memory, like many previous reports. Of course, my working assumption is that law enforcement agencies will not breathe new life into the findings by launching a new probe. 

Thus, it is safe to assume that the report will likely have a minor impact on the upcoming elections. A snowstorm is brewing. The evening news are going to be dominated by weather-related stories over the next few days. Then, our attention will shift to Netanyahu's U.S. visit and his speech to Congress. Once again the news cycle will be driven by Iran and Netanyahu, not by the report. 

The state comptroller's report is not an easy read. There are some parts that are pretty troubling. But you cannot escape the fact that the report is essentially channeling the press and dovetails with its own findings. In fact, the various controversies the media has exposed were incorporated into the report. The timing of the report -- with elections just a month away -- was essentially dictated by the media (the state comptroller had planned to release his findings only after the elections, but was forced to change his mind in light of a media onslaught). More than anything else, the report is an aggregation of rehashed stories that have already been discussed ad nauseam.

What's more striking though is the double standard the comptroller applied. The report on Netanyahu scrutinized his every action. Every single page has at least one juicy detail about his make-up routine, the tidiness of the residence, his takeout meals, his water consumption and the employment of a special electrician. The report on former President Shimon Peres, however, is very pedestrian. Its language is anything but sensational, although it leaves one question unanswered: How did the budget for the President's Residence surge 20 percent every year to a figure of 60 million shekels ($16 million)? With all due deference to the comptroller, why did he employ delicate language on Peres? After all, Netanyahu's expenses seem like peanuts compared to the staggering expenses at the President's Residence.


Mati Tuchfeld

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=11637

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

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