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The Dollar Account affair (, ''Parashat Heshbon HaDolarim'') was a political scandal in
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
in 1977, following the exposure of an illegal United States
bank account A bank account is a financial account maintained by a bank or other financial institution in which the financial transaction A financial transaction is an Contract, agreement, or communication, between a buyer and seller to exchange goods, ...
held by Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; , ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the prime minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–1977, and from 1992 until Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, his ass ...
and his wife
Leah Leah () appears in the Hebrew Bible as one of the two wives of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. Leah was Jacob's first wife, and the older sister of his second (and favored) wife Rachel. She is the mother of Jacob's first son Reuben. She has thr ...
. It led to Rabin's de facto resignation from the government.


Affair

In March 1977, while Yitzhak Rabin was meeting United States President
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
, Leah Rabin was spotted making a withdrawal from a
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
bank. She had been withdrawing money from a joint account in U.S. dollars in the names of Yitzhak and Leah Rabin. At the time, it was illegal for Israeli citizens to hold bank accounts overseas, barring exceptional circumstances; the account in question had been opened while Yitzhak Rabin was the Israeli ambassador to the United States (1968–73), and according to procedure, should have been closed once he left that post. Dan Margalit, the Washington correspondent for the Israeli newspaper ''
Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...
'' was tipped off. He rushed to the bank in question, told the teller he owed the Rabins money, and asked to deposit a $50 check into the account. After confirming the existence of the account, the teller wrote down the account number on the back of Margalit's check prior to depositing it. Margalit memorized the digits and wrote them down. ''Haaretz'' broke the story on 15 March 1977, the day after Rabin returned to Israel. Such minor offenses were usually resolved by an administrative fine, but Attorney-General
Aharon Barak Aharon Barak (; born 16 September 1936) is an Israeli lawyer and jurist who served as President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995 to 2006. Prior to this, Barak served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1978 to 1995, and bef ...
announced his intention to prosecute, coining the phrase " Buzaglo test", meaning that a leader must be held to the same judicial standards as an ordinary citizen. Although Leah Rabin explained that she alone had operated the account, her husband publicly accepted joint moral and legal responsibility. He resigned following the revelation by ''
Maariv ''Maariv'' or ''Maʿariv'' (, ), also known as ''Arvit'', or ''Arbit'' (, ), is a Jewish prayer service held in the evening or at night. It consists primarily of the evening '' Shema'' and ''Amidah''. The service will often begin with two ...
'' journalist S. Isaac Mekel that the Rabins held two accounts in Washington, not one, containing $10,000, and that a Finance Ministry administrative penalty committee fined them IL150,000. Rabin thereupon announced (on 8 April) that he was withdrawing from the first place in the
Alignment Alignment may refer to: Archaeology * Alignment (archaeology), a co-linear arrangement of features or structures with external landmarks * Stone alignment, a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones Biology * Struc ...
's
Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...
list, and
Defense Minister A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...
Shimon Peres Shimon Peres ( ; ; born Szymon Perski, ; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the president of Israel from 2007 t ...
was unanimously elected to succeed him. Since, according to Israeli law, resignation from a caretaker government was impossible, Rabin took a vacation from his duties as prime minister and Peres took his place.


Aftermath

The affair followed a series of corruption scandals and is often seen as one of the reasons for the Alignment's loss in the upcoming
election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...
. Margalit's source later revealed himself to be the security officer of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He said his motive for informing was moral rather than political, and that he himself had always been a
Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
voter. Criminal charges were brought against Leah Rabin for maintaining an illegal bank account. She pleaded guilty to the charges in the Tel Aviv District Court and was fined IL250,000 ($27,000) by judge Dov Levin. The Israeli Treasury imposed an administrative fine of IL15,000 on Yitzhak Rabin, ruling that his role in the currency violation had been passive. In 2002, ''
Maariv ''Maariv'' or ''Maʿariv'' (, ), also known as ''Arvit'', or ''Arbit'' (, ), is a Jewish prayer service held in the evening or at night. It consists primarily of the evening '' Shema'' and ''Amidah''. The service will often begin with two ...
'' correspondent Ben Caspit reported that Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, Yitzhak and Leah's daughter, said she recently spoke with Professor Yaakov Ne'eman, a lawyer. She said he told her that many years ago he discovered a yellowing, forgotten internal regulation in the
Finance Ministry A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...
's archives. This regulation stipulated that a member of the Foreign Ministry who completed his term abroad was permitted to hold a dollar account for three more years. Neeman said that following the discovery, he contacted Barak, who denied knowing about it. Formally, the regulation did not apply, as the account was discovered over three years after Rabin completed his term as ambassador in Washington. However, it might have dissuaded Barak from prosecuting, thus perhaps preventing Rabin's resignation. In an interview given to ''Haaretz'' in 2009, Barak said that had Yitzhak Rabin not resigned, he would have prosecuted him as well as his wife. Rabin's resignation is sometimes seen as a display of public responsibility unmatched by later politicians.


References

{{reflist Political scandals in Israel 1977 in Israel Yitzhak Rabin