Q&A: Corruption
Corruption
Question
Yesterday an investigative report by HaMakor was broadcast. The report said that Miri Regev handles transportation problems and responds only to requests from her vote contractors. Those who do not deliver her many votes in the primaries and submit a request to the Ministry of Transportation (paving a road, installing a traffic light, and the like) are forced to wait until she is gracious enough to respond to the request, if at all. And those who do not give her a vote in the primaries—and all the more so town heads who belong to other parties—receive no response at all. She literally made a traffic-light plan showing which towns would receive a response. In short, all of our money is being diverted to political needs.
There they presented correspondence from the Ministry of Transportation. But it may be like this in other ministries as well.
Is it morally and halakhically permissible to work off the books because of this corrupt conduct, in which all of our money is being diverted to political needs?
Answer
Unfortunately not. The categorical imperative says not to do what you would not want to become a universal law. If everyone did this, the state would disappear. Beyond that, you receive services from the state and must pay for them. People like Miri Regev and others like her should be dealt with through the police and at the ballot box.