The descent of Hazan

After being accused of mocking a disabled MK, soliciting prostitutes, and even using crystal meth, Oren Hazan, perhaps the Likud party’s most troublesome lawmaker at the moment, is in hot water once again over his suspected failure to report campaign spendings and lying in an affidavit, leading the Hebrew media to paint the politician’s portrait in the most uncomplimentary colors imaginable.

“He lied, and he will be investigated,” Yedioth Ahronoth’s headline reads alongside a photo of the shamed MK smiling widely at a pub in the West Bank city of Ariel. “Yesterday: Partying at the bar,” another subhead, accompanied by a small arrow pointing at the picture, states in a disapproving tone. Finally, after an unmistakable criticism of the lawmaker’s persona was expressed, the paper goes on to report on Hazan’s actual suspected misdeeds. “He keeps getting in trouble: MK Oren Hazan is headed for questioning following the state comptroller’s report, and is also suspended for a month from the Knesset because of his ridicule of [wheelchair-bound] MK Karin Elharar.” Yedioth then goes on to explicitly state that Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein is expected to instruct the Israel Police to open a criminal investigation against Hazan in the coming days.

Israel Hayom’s writers, typically a whole lot more sympathetic to the ruling Likud party than rival Yedioth, attempts really, really, hard to be somewhat reserved in its approach to the allegations against Hazan, though even it cannot help but show displeasure over the MK’s alleged actions. The paper tones down Yedioth’s clear-cut determination that Hazan will be investigated, reporting that it is only “assessed” that the MK be questioned by police. Nevertheless, Israel Hayom quotes fellow Likud member Yuli Edelstein as saying that he “hopes [Hazan] will resign.

Haaretz contributor Gidi Weitz posits that the recent entry in the Hazan saga actually reflects on the inability of the state comptroller to eradicate the true instances of high-level corruption in the Knesset. “Last week it was discovered that [State Comptroller] Yosef Shapira gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu another extension on giving a reply to the attorney general’s report on the Bibi-tours affair,” Weitz points out. Hazan, the Haaretz writer says, is an easy target, and is just a small fish in an ocean of government corruption swarming with sordid Knesset officials.

Yedioth offers a report that might have been hilarious had it not been so utterly disturbing, on a group of extremist right-wing activists who rally under a pirate-like black banner, with an image of a skeleton wearing a skullcap and sporting traditional Jewish sidelocks. The group, many of whom are associated with the illegal West Bank outpost known as Givat Habaladim in the Binyamin region, has a notable presence on social media, and some of its members have even made subtle threats against IDF officials who were involved in efforts to curb the extremists’ influence. The group, Yedioth reports, has given security forces a “major headache” in recent months, as members have been allegedly involved in several violent clashes with Palestinians.

In a series of articles dealing with a topic with far more pressing implications than this or that MK’s alleged crimes, Haaretz reports and contemplates on a gathering of leading scientists and ethicists in Washington DC aimed at formulating a set of rules to guide future research and appliance of human gene manipulation techniques. As biological technologies improve, the ethical questions raised by the possibility of altering human genes becomes more of an issue, the paper explains. New technologies, such as the CRISPR gene editing tool, make it possible to potentially beat out deadly diseases and provide immense health benefits to all humankind, but are also a cause for serious concern. The Washington gathering attempts to address these concerns, which range from threats posed by mass cloning of human population to unforeseen implications that may come with the editing of a certain gene to parents picking and choosing the traits of babies before they are born. In Israel, one of the Haaretz reports notes, human cloning is forbidden by law, as is meddling with certain reproductive cells. The future of gene manipulation technology promises to be fascinating, but scary as well.