Do you remember that movie with Leonardo diCaprio about the man who lied about everything, and never got caught? Well, it’s a good thing he never tried to become an Israeli cabinet minister. Esterina Tartman, from the Yisrael Beiteinu list just withdrew her candidacy for Minister of Tourism after getting caught with just a little resume padding.
You can check out her official Knesset resume online in Hebrew. Sorry, the English version doesn’t have all of the information. It lists an MBA from “Jerusalem” and a BA in Finance from Bar Ilan. Sounds nice, aside from the little problem that she doesn’t have either of those degrees. Rather, as Yediot Ahronot pointed out, Ms Tartman got her BA from DK’s favorite – Touro College – and has taken some non-academic ongoing education classes at Bar Ilan. (Here’s Haaretz’s coverage, it’s in English)
This all follows an earlier expose by Yediot regarding a large insurance award that the MK received after claiming that a traffic accident had severely affected her memory and ability to concentrate, limiting her to only 4 hours of work a day.
Now, you might give her a hand for almost pulling off an amazing stunt. After all, how many Touro College grads have been nominated for cabinet positions in any country? But, you would expect her to apologize, show a little remorse, some contrition, right? Well, not in the Holy Land. Here, instead, when politicians get caught with their pants down, they attack the media, and claim to be victims of a vast conspiracy. Here are some translations of the juicy lines from Esterina Tartman’s press conference a few hours ago.

Over the past few days I have found myself at the center of a planned attack campaign, ugly slander and fact distortion, and all for the purpose of hurting my reputation and me.
(Regarding the false resume)
I have my original resume that I gave to the Knesset. I gave it in, and it doesn’t have these statements. I tried to check the sources, but I do not shirk responsibility. I made a mistake when I said an MBA. If I had added the words, “studies towards an MBA” there would be no problem, since I completed a BA with Honors [a claim disputed in the Haaretz article –JF] I continued my studies towards an MBA.
This is not only a war regarding my reputation, this is a war for the nature of the State of Israel . . .

At least Halutz had the decency to resign.