Paritzky and kneecaps

You know those mystery movies where two minutes before the end, it turns out the least suspicious guy in the flick was the twisted, guilty guy all along? Watching Yosef Paritzky going down is like being in one of those movies. I must say, I was really taken by surprise by today's revelations, and really find it hard to square this plotting, malicious man with the seemingly straight, if somewhat comical guy all journalists knew would oblige with a long, ideology-laden rant if they needed a good quote.
In all the commotion, however, there's one thing I wonder about. The private investigator Paritzky attempted to use was employed by the Electric Company's worker's committee. The way most reports are worded, it sounds as if Paritzky just came across this guy and decided to use him to plot the downfall of his colleague Avraham Poraz.
But right the end of this Ha'aretz article, Paritzky himself implies otherwise. "They sent me a private investigator," he says, "and I fell for the bait."
Who, I wonder, is "they?" One can only assume he means the Electric Company, or at the very least, its worker's committee. At the time, of course, Poraz was trying to pass a law which would curtail their supply of free electricity.
If this is true, and I suspect it is, it would hardly be surprising. The Electric Company is known as one of the most powerful and corrupt organizations in the country, whose workers have many privileges they protect at all costs. Its legendary chairman of the IEC worker's union, Yoram Oberkovitz, who died a couple of years back, was regarded as a real mafioso who was convicted of falsification of corporate documents and indicted for bribery, and in 2003 Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein recommended he be suspended as chairman of the union.
A few years back, my boss at the Jerusalem Post asked me to write an expose of the electricity company. I declined, 99% because I wasn't interested, but -- I'll admit -- just a tiny bit because I didn't fancy the prospect of having my kneecaps blown off.
In that context, I must wonder why more of the media is not asking more questions about how exactly Paritzky got hold of this private investigator -- and from where exactly he got the idea of framing Poraz.
I guess the other journalists don't fancy losing their kneecaps either.

UPDATE: Ma'ariv is beginning to ask the questions. So far they're reporting that the private investigator was paid for by the IEC, which -- under Oberkovitz's personal instructions -- wanted to dig the dirt up on Poraz itself. However, the IEC denies ever meeting with Paritzky on this, or being involved in any other way in the Paritzky affair. The new chairman of their worker's union is on his way back from the States to explain...