politicians are vying with each other to
issue prime-time calls for Weizman's
immediate departure.
The danger to the president is that
if he does not accede to the mounting
pressure and step down soon, a move
may gather steam in the Knesset for
his forcible removal.
It is a legislative process akin to
impeachment, requiring a majority of
80 out of the Knesset's 120 members.
While most members are.plainly
hesitant to take such drastic action
against the still-popular president,
most are even more unwilling to accept
a situation in which the head of state
ignores the prevailing opinion within
the political community.
Weizman has stated that he is
"happy" with the outcome of the
police investigation. And his wife,
Reuma, said Monday that she, too, felt
,
they "could carry on normally now:
Weizman himself has repeatedly hinted
that he sees political enemies behind
the original disclosures aired by
Yitzhak.
Sources close to him link the
episode to his staunch support for the
peace process — a support that could
have been critical in the run-up to a
referendum on a withdrawal from the
Golan Heights or from the West Bank.
But while politicians on the left
may indeed share those suspicions,
they are producing little or no back-
ing for Weizman now that the police
report is in. Even politicians who are
prepared to accept the president's
theory of political victimization say
he cannot escape the bald facts —
and their implications — unearthed
by the police.
A president, they say, cannot have
been on the secret payroll of a million-
aire, have sought to conceal this, have
been exposed, and still remain at the
pinnacle of national affairs.
Adding to the politicians' desire that
Weizman step down soon is their
growing collective discomfort with the
mushrooming role of the attorney gen-
eral as the arbiter both of political
mores and of political fates.
Since the case is unlikely to go
before a court of law, the feeling on
both sides of the Knesset aisle is that
the legislators, who elect the president,
should be the judge of this president's -
continued suitability for his high office.
By bringing massive pressure to bear
on Weizman, both publicly and in pri-
vate, Israel's senior politicians are intent
on taking back for the legislature —
from the judiciary and state prosecutor
— the right to determine the nation's
binding ethical standards.

❑

5r6wifOliag0vet

Florence Abel
Bruce Abramson
Jeanette Bayer
Kate Browner
Lauren Bruss
Sharon & Andy
Collins
Dennis P. .Dickstein
Olena Drobot
Irene Eagle

Rosalie Fox
Linda Franklin
Anu Gandhi
Iris Goldstein
Lillian Hoard
Jeff Katzen
Connie Kramer
Esther Liwazer
Marcia Miller

Renee Miller
Melanie Mitchell
Sheila R.
Morganroth
Robert Schuman
Judy Stein
Kimberly A. Szaro
Susan Weinstock
Norma Zelch

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