The World: Other Scandals: All in the Family

The founding fathers of Israel, Knesset Member Shlomo Lorincz reminded his parliamentary colleagues, used to joke that when their state became a full-fledged nation, it would even have "Jewish crooks." Well, Lorincz added caustically, referring to the scandals that have rocked Yitzhak Rabin's government, "we are more than a nation. We are a superpower."

Like Lorincz, a member of the Agudat Israel Party, most Israelis are appalled and ashamed by the recent epidemic of white-collar corruption in the Jewish state. A few cynically shrug it off as the predictable result of Israel's gradual...

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