Unjustice triumphant

Street protests in Israel: "Mazuz (the attorney general), get out", "You are not alone - 1202", "Serial rapist receiving presidential salary"). Ex President Moshe Katzav accepted a negotiated end to its hellish prosecution and resigned. He signed a statement that he had embraced the accuser - his former secretary. The girl then went on television and detailed while crying how she had been harassed by the boss ("You are so attractive", "Your dress suits you") for months on months. That he used to call her in to his office with fake business when he just wanted to see her and say how nice she was looking this morning. Terrible ordeal for a 30 ish woman. A veritable wolf man this President! She declared that a serial rapist like Moshe Katzav should not be allowed to go free but sent to jail for life. Yesterday it was the Attorney General Many Mazuz that went on TV. He said that what he thinks is not important, that sex between boss and secretary is somehow illegal, but from the Attorney General's angle what is relevant is that there were no witnesses or anything that could stand up in a court, that the accuser did not mention the use of physical force, a necessary condition of rape as defined in the Law. That her testimony was full of contradictions and would be rejected in a court. Yesterday there was a mass protest in Tel Aviv, organized by the Women's Lobby, to demand jail sentence to the "criminal" - because "it is a fact that men - particularly powerful men - are never punished for their sexual crimes". Mazuz's second declared: "They are saying that the Attorney General was afraid of Katzav. That is nonsense. Today, Moshe Katzav is the weakest person in Israel."

I remember that it was Moshe Katzav, then President, who started the whole affaire, by asking the Attorney General to investigate his secretary, who was blackmailing him. He submitted a tape (illegally obtained, so not valid in court) where she was asking him 200,000 dollars. It ends today (it is hoped), Katzav disgraced as serial rapist and mass protests demanding his head. Israel 2007. Not what you used to think.

PS: The interim President was Dahlia Itzig, a sevetyish Iraq-born left-wing female politician, whom would be ludicrous to accuse of sexual misbehaviour. And our new President, Shimon Peres, is 84 years old. Presumably, his secretaries have little to fear from his attentions. But in Israel you never know.