Today the members of Israel's Kadima political party have been voting for their leader who will in all likelihood soon become Israeli's next prime minister. As in all political contests, each of the candidates has exaggerated both their own virtues and the alleged shortcomings of their rivals.

Each of the candidates has distanced him or herself from outgoing Kadima leader and prime minister Ehud Olmert. Olmert was forced to announce his standing down by the investigations carried out by the police and the press concerning still unproved misdemeanours.

A large number of Israelis have greeted the announcement of Olmert's imminent resignation with an enormous sigh of relief. For them he is already guilty of permanently besmirching Israel's good name and of doing almost fatal damage to the confidence of the public in its leaders.

But maybe this is a big exaggeration. 150 years ago Lord Acton warned of the inevitability of corruption amongst leaders who have too much power. Israeli politicians are almost certainly no better and no worse than those of other countries.

But this is not the point.

100 years ago and 50 years ago the politics of democratic countries was dominated by ideologically biased political parties who fought each other with determination and conviction every inch of the way. The smallest shortcoming was exposed and denounced. Today this kind of ideological politics is no more. Everything is personal. There is too much basic ideological agreement- in Israel and in almost all democratic countries.

Only the press attacks the politicians with a vengeance. Only investigative journalists try to root out misgovernment, only they dare to attack the behaviour of political leaders, only they highlight the shortcomings of government.

Sure, the press is not always right, it is not always fair, it exaggerates, it is irreverent. But it performs the vital function of a "loyal opposition". And so it safeguards the rights of the citizen, it ensures better standards of government.

Rather than carp about the failures of their governments (which I suspect are no more serious than those of governments everywhere), Israelis should be very proud that they live in one of the few countries where there is a fearless press to protect them.