Criminal Case Against Israeli President Closed

Of the many political scandals gripping Israel these days, perhaps none has been as unsettling as the bribery investigation of popular President Ezer Weizman.

On Thursday, police closed the case, recommending that Weizman not stand trial. But the resolution quieted neither the calls for Weizman to resign nor the public angst over the tarnishing of a national leader and the system he heads.

A former war hero and member of one of Israel’s founding families, the 75-year-old president has been under investigation for the last three months for receiving more than $300,000 and other gifts from a French millionaire.

Police investigators who conducted the probe presented a 120-page report Thursday to state prosecutors. Citing lack of evidence, they recommended that Weizman not face criminal charges of bribe-taking and tax evasion. Prosecutors are expected to follow the recommendation.

Hardly an exoneration, however, the report said the president should be charged with fraud and breach of trust but that the statute of limitations has lapsed.

“The bottom line,” said Weizman’s attorney, Yehuda Weinstein, “is that the case is closed. How, or why, does not matter.”

It was the first time in Israeli history that a criminal investigation had targeted a president.

Though a largely ceremonial post, the presidency is supposed to represent a moral authority that stays above Israel’s rambunctious political fray. But the blunt and sharp-tongued Weizman has not been afraid to meddle in the affairs of state and express his often candid opinions. This has outraged some Israelis but endeared him to many more.

Consistently ranking as Israel’s most popular politician, Weizman was a fighter pilot who led the Israeli air force to victory in the pivotal 1967 Middle East War but later became a staunch advocate of peace. Since the scandal broke, and with his popularity plummeting, he has steadily resisted calls from political leaders and Israel’s major newspapers to resign.

Those calls were heard again Thursday. At the Israeli parliament, where a three-quarters vote can impeach the president, several legislators urged Weizman to take stock.

“The report is grave, and it does not clear him, certainly not morally or publicly, and it cannot be ignored,” said legislator Ofer Pines of the ruling Labor Party.

The allegations against Weizman were first aired by an investigative reporter. Weizman acknowledged receiving the money from millionaire Edouard Saroussi, whom he described as a close friend. The money was a tax-exempt gift given with no strings attached, Weizman insisted.

Police investigators, on the other hand, determined that Weizman and Saroussi did have business ties, which Weizman had denied. But they could not prove that the president granted Saroussi favors in exchange for the money, paid out in monthly installments between 1987 and 1993, when Weizman was a lawmaker and Cabinet minister.

Israelis have watched with dismay as one public figure after another has become embroiled in criminal investigations. Currently, the prime minister, his predecessor, a newspaper publisher, a top rabbi and at least two other government ministers or past ministers are being investigated.

This was once a basically socialist country, where the simple holding of a small foreign bank account brought down a prime minister 23 years ago. Today, it seems that there is a higher degree of both corruption and scrutiny, Israelis say.

An editorial in the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot summed up the national questioning:

“Beyond this festival of headlines . . . a small question nags in our bellies: Have we really become Sodom? Are we likened to Gomorrah? What exactly is happening here? How is it that suddenly now, in broad daylight, our leaders have become afflicted with corruption and words of folly? Did they really change the rules and forget to tell us?”