The Weekly Portion: Crime and premiership

The prime minister's announcement that he will not run for the leadership of Kadima and will assist the person elected in his place to become the premier of the next government was last week's major event.

I have never voiced a legal opinion as to Olmert's guilt or innocence. I believe in the basic democratic principle that a man is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law - and only there. That principle applies as much to a Prime Minister as it does to any other citizen.

I cannot ignore the fact that all three of Olmert's predecessors in office were prosecuted, and not one of them was indicted.

I cannot ignore the fact that in recent years, two justice ministers were prosecuted: one was acquitted (Yaakov Neeman) and the other convicted (Haim Ramon), although the State Comptroller is now investigating the legality of the process that led to his conviction.

I cannot ignore the fact that it is without precedent in the State of Israel for civil servants (policemen and prosecutors) to conduct a public media campaign against their prime minister while violating basic norms of the rule of law such as leaks from investigations and the coaching of witnesses.

I cannot ignore the fact that political forces opposed to the foreign policy steps of the Prime Minister were the ones who set in motion the processes that effectively led to his ouster, via that same media campaign.

I hope that the prime minister will stick to his word and in his last months in office will speed up efforts to reach a framework agreement with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. We very much need this agreement in order to stand firm on other fronts and avoid the danger of a bi-national state.

When Olmert's resignation from the premiership will be a certainty, I expect of all those who seek an agreement - in Kadima, the Labor Party and Meretz - to work for its approval in the government and in the Knesset. This is not Olmert's private project but a supreme national interest.

Early in the week we were shocked by the murder of Marguarita Lautin who was shot right in front of her husband and children on the beach in Bat-Yam. The brutal killing of a woman who was walking with her family on the seashore after a day's work exemplifies the loss of control that exists today in the realm of internal security. Israeli citizens do not feel secure in their homes or in the street; the safety of their lives and property is not assured by the state.

There is a clear social service issue here. For internal security - the provision of personal safety - is a social service. This service too is being privatized, like many other social services. In wealthy neighborhoods there are private security companies, their men properly outfitted with a vehicle and communications equipment. This is paid for by the residents' money.

In the rest of the country the property of the citizens is up for grabs, thugs run amok on the beaches and in other public places, and the authorities lack the resources to intervene. The crime families operate almost undisturbed, gun-battles and attempted assassinations break out. Innocent passers-by, like Marguarita Lautin, pay the price with their lives.

There are several reasons for this out-of-control state of affairs.

• The police force is neglected in the governmental agenda. Its members sense this, and many are leaving the service. Nor is there always backing by the state powers. The affair of the Nahariya policemen who took the law into their own hands to fight a local crime family is a symptom of that.
• The police does not have the means to keep up with the improvements in technological sophistication being used by the crime world.
• The justice system is too slow and too merciful. There is no quick and appropriate punishment for crimes against the public. Financial crimes are punished more severely than crimes against the citizen (attacks on the elderly, muggings, sex crimes and so on)

This state of affairs needs to be corrected using several main approaches: granting national priority to the police, equalizing employment conditions for  police-officers to those of career military officers, and modernizing the police force operationally, conceptually and technologically; and a broad legislation of minimum sentences for severe crimes, which will significantly narrow the scope for lenience and forgiveness by the court system.

If these steps are taken, the citizens of Israel will be able to walk safely on its streets and on its beaches.