The lack of professionalism in Israeli "journalism" is hard to believe - but professionalism is a rarity in EVERY field in Israel.

All the same, paying hotel bills is serious business. It is precisely the crime of accepting an invitation to a hotel that got Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger into serious legal trouble a year or so ago. His terms of employment apparently forbid accepting gifts like this. (Actually, he is a politician, and not a good one, so he fell for this political trap and somebody brought hotel receipts to set him up in court. In Israel, when someone offers to help you with something or to invite you to a party or something, it is often with the intent of framing or blackmailing the 'guest' or 'friend'. Israel works that way...)

Thus someone paying for Olmert's hotel, if that indeed happened, is something that the courts here COULD get really excited about... if they feel like it.

Which is another problem in the Israeli system: the application of law is capricious. Sometimes yes, sometimes no, depends on how the judge / policeman / clerk feels that day.

But the ridiculous practices in this absurd little country could fill an entire separate blog, so I'll stop here...
Jake in Jerusalem | 05.12.08 - 3:05 pm | #