Quotes of the Day

At the end of last week, the Israeli papers enthusiastically announced the success of Ariel Sharon's visit to England and Norway. His entourage was satisfied with the warmth with which the Israeli prime minister was accepted in those two countries and the special treatment he received in 10 Downing Street. He was invited to a private dinner with Tony Blair — an invitation, the Israeli press trumpeted proudly, even George W. Bush never got.

But by the time Sharon returned to Israel, he found the country in chaos — and a quite different story hitting the headlines. The week of Sharon's glorious European tour was one of social unrest and distress back home. The implementation of Phase I of his government's new economic plan led to an unexpected outcry. Dozens of single parents began marching to Jerusalem from impoverished towns all over Israel and set up a protest camp in front of the Ministry of Finance. Led by Vicki Knafo, a single mother from a desert village in southern Israel, they demonstrated against the cuts in social security payments to single parents. Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to put some spin on this emotive protest: he accused single parents, along with other security beneficiaries, of evading real hard work, and came up with a new plan to supply them with employment — short-term and poorly paid.

Even while the government dealt with this issue, another humanitarian crisis occurred. The minister of health declared that the public health system was in such an acute state of emergency that within days hospitals would not be able to supply drugs and treatment, not to mention surgery. Netanyahu's immediate response was to blame the inefficiency of the system.

But these were not Sharon's main worries: after all, an economic failure would be blamed on Netanyahu, long a thorn in his side. The main source of Sharon's political problems came from much closer home. Both his sons, Gilad and Omri — the latter a member of the Knesset — have been under police investigation for the past few months, a complicated inquiry that threatens to drag Sharon himself into it. The enquiry began after a daily newspaper's revelation that Sharon's 1999 primary was illegally financed, with the involvement of Omri. The state comptroller ordered Sharon, in October 2001, to give the money back to the donors and since then the whole affair deteriorated into a confusion of Gilad's alleged financial dealings. Last week, as Sharon toured Europe, Gilad was interrogated by the police, and chose to invoke his "right to silence".

The weekend papers predicted Omri's imminent indictment, but he seems pretty confident in his future. On Friday, when I left the local newspaper stand, grabbing a huge pile of weekend papers, all with his name smeared in big letters across them, I saw Omri enjoying his coffee in the next door café — his regular when he's in Tel Aviv. He did not appear at all distressed. Neither, it seems, is the Israeli public, which tends to close a blind eye to the implications of such serious accusations. Israel, which voted for Sharon in full knowledge of this scandal, prefers to bury its head in the sand. The headlines about Sharon and his were forgotten by the beginning of this week. Instead, Netanyahu's struggle against the single moms and against the minister of health is back, big time.

But the Sharon family corruption story will not disappear. It's set to blow up in our faces, as well as embarrass Bush and Blair — who are nowadays too busy with their own homemade scandals. It's easy to explain Israel's collective blindness: Sharon was always perceived as a "strong man" rather than an honest one. He was elected because the Israelis thought he would be powerful enough to get a proper agreement with the Palestinians, not because they thought he would rehabilitate Israeli democracy. But just as the single parents found out too late about the consequences of Netanyahu's economic plan, just as the Minister of Health (who voted for the plan) only now sees the horrible outcome of the budget cuts, Israelis may one day learn that the Sharon & Sons scandal has broader implications for Israeli democracy.

But as always, it will happen too late.

• MICHAL LEVERTOV
• But none of them seems to stick on Sharon, says Michal Levertov