"The media squabble over Shchepotin’s final day at the Cancer Institute, and the doubts it raised over the motivation of all concerned, were appropriate, because the most corrosive aspect of corruption is the way that it undermines trust. When corruption is widespread, it becomes impossible to know whom to believe, since the money infects every aspect of state and society. Every newspaper article can be criticized as paid for, every politician can be called corrupt, every court decision can be called into question. Charities are set up by oligarchs to lobby for their interests, and those then provoke doubts about every other non-governmental organization. If even doctors are on the take, can you trust their diagnoses? Are they claiming a patient needs treatment only because that would be to their profit? If policemen are crooked, and courts are paid for, are criminals really criminals? Or are they honest people who interfered in criminals’ business? Not knowing whom to believe, you retreat into trusting only those closest to you—your oldest friends, and your relatives—and that reinforces the divisions in society that corruption thrives on. It is impossible to build a thriving economy, or a healthy democracy, without a society whose members fundamentally trust each other. If you take that away, you are left with something far darker and more mercenary."
"Hamas Isn't an Existential Threat; the Threats of the Future Are Far Greater" ( Maj. General Rtd.) Yitzhak Brik. Haaretz. Key Points.
Introduction of Yitzhak Brik. Yitzhak Brik is a retired Israeli IDF General. He was born on November 7, 1947 . Brik served in the Armored Corps as a brigade , division , and troops commander , and also commanded the IDF military colleges . He is also a Fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at Reichman University, Herzliya . During the Yom Kippur War , he served as a reserve company commander and received the Medal of Courage. For about a decade, he served as the Soldier's Complaints Commissioner (Ombudsman) in the Ministry of Defense . More recently, Brik has been a harsh critic of the IDF's preparedness for war and is considered in Israel as the "prophet of wrath" of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. Yitzhak Brik writes at Haaretz " Hamas Isn't an Existential Threat; the Threats of the Future Are Far Greater" Yitzhak Brik , a retired Israeli Major General, has warned of Israel's potential collapse within a year if the w...
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