As I try not to think about how many days are left of Year Course now that our spring break chofesh is over, I will instead think about a particular instance during my break—more specifically, a particular cab ride.  

Allow me to preface: For the final half of my Passover break, I bummed around Tel Aviv. I slept on friends' couches in the suburb of Holon, woke up at noon, grabbed a bus to Tel Aviv, hung out at the beach and went “hotel hopping.” What is hotel hopping, you ask? I define it as the act of going from hotel to hotel at which one's friends are staying and either swimming in the pool, drinking orange juice in the lounge or baking in the sauna. I wasn't lying when I said I bummed around Tel Aviv.

At sundown we would go back to Holon to shower and nap before returning to Tel Aviv at night. Forced to take a taxi home one afternoon, three friends and I waved one down on the tayelet (promenade). After agreeing on a price (everyone does this in Israel), the driver made small talk with all of us. He spoke about Pesach (Passover) in Tel Aviv and told us about the hotels on the beachfront—two subjects about which we knew a thing or two.

To avoid traffic, he drove us through Neve Tzedek, a beautiful neighborhood in Tel Aviv. Very tour-guide-esque, he pointed out landmarks here and there and showed us the house in which he grew up. All of this for forty shekels (this is a little less than ten dollars and a very good deal)! He went on and on about how much he loves Israel, how the country is green all year round, how there are palm trees everywhere and how even the old slummy cities like Holon and Bat Yam are beginning to blossom.

He then morphed from a tour guide into a political analyst. As much as he loves the country, he said, he has considered yerida—emigration from Israel, because of the corruption in the government.

According to my driver, politicians only care about themselves, not about improving the country. "Politicians aren't Zionists,” he said. “They are pigs." He spoke of bringing back leaders like Menachem Begin, a member of the right-wing Likud party, and of a right-wing revolution.

Something about this Israeli's passion for his country, and yet his hatred for that same country's politics hit me. I follow the news and know about all the recent corruption in Israeli politics, but I never stopped to think about the constituents, the men and women who put these people into office, and their opinions. This man, a Zionist, feels that non-Zionists making his country's decisions are betraying him. Is this true?

After some research on my part, this man doesn't seem so extreme.

According to one online poll, 80 percent of Israelis are happy with their personal situation (my cab driver loves his country and his city), while 59 percent are depressed about the situation of the state (he hates his government).  

Let me recount a few examples of governmental corruption:

• The President of the State of Israel, Moshe Katsav, is currently on a leave of absence due to impending charges and at least eight individual accusations of sexual harassment. He points his finger toward a conspiracy stemming from the Likud party.
• The Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, refuses to resign after accusations of corruption and favoritism, yet over 66 percent of the public wants him to step down. The Minister of Defense, Amir Peretz, is in the same boat as Olmert—85 percent of the public wants him to resign.
• The Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Military Affairs Committee, Tzachi Hanegbi, has been indicted for fraud, bribery and perjury, yet he remains in office.
• The Minister of Justice, Chaim Ramon, is on trial for harassing a 21-year-old female soldier.

Who or what is to blame for all this corruption? Is it the public—the men and women who elected these leaders? Is it the parliamentary democracy system which fails to ensure the Prime Minister a full term of four years? Thus, he must embrace leaders of the coalition parties, as incompetent as they are, to direct their ministries.  

There is no such thing as long-term policy for the Prime Minister. The American system, on the other hand, allows for such long-term policy-making. In the U.S., a president, seen as an all-powerful leader, is elected to a four-year term and is aided by a cabinet full of experts in their fields. There are, of course, cons to our system as well. If the president is a failure, the country is basically stuck until the president's term expires.

Even without all of the controversy surrounding the Israeli government today, it is incredible that Israel is a democracy. Why? Most Israelis or their parents came from czarist and communist Russia, the dictatorship of Jozef Pilsudsky in Poland or the colonial mandate of Palestine under Britain. I find it amazing that the eclectic group of Israelis that founded this country chose democracy and freedom.

So what is there to do? I don't think scratching the parliamentary democratic system is necessary because it has worked before and can work again. Replacing the corrupt, second-rate politicians in office is necessary. Israel doesn't need a coup d'etat, it needs more people like my cab driver, more strong Zionists who realize that their government is corrupt and needs reform.

Perhaps Israel needs another Menachem Begin, a man who knows when to make peace and when to flex his muscles. While a credible solution may take much time and effort from new political personalities, I hope that either in my last few weeks in Israel or on my college campus in the States, I will be able to stand up for and be proud of the government of Israel.

Ben is one of JVibe's Young Judaea Year Course correspondents. He's from Charleston, S.C. He plays a lot of tennis, worked at Camp Judaea over the summer, loves Israel and traveling, and will study at Stanford University next year.