Wednesday, August 30, 2006

who set up Katsav?

When a public official, without any prior scandals, is accused of violantly raping a woman in his office more then once there is something strange going on. It seems that no one can get out of Israeli politics without having some serious dirt thrown on them. How Benny Begin made it out with people's respect will be recorded as one of life's unsolved mysteries.
Is a foreign country funding a scandal manufacturer in Israel, where Israeli politicians are being set up or put into situations where they will most likely fall? Or are Israeli politicians just stupid?

I think one of the key elements that we are missing here is to check into the complainants finances and see if there isn't something just a little bit strange going on.

In any case, if Katzav is forced to resign I think Sharansky would make a great President. Start preparing his nomination. He is already a highly respected statesman . There are no scandals to his name (that I know of). He is already seen as a national symbol of Israel. He quit the government when he felt that his conscience would not let him be a part of a bad government decision.
Sharansky is the man.

5 comments:

Rafi G. said...

Sharansky is a great idea!

yudit said...

Ofcourse any suspect is innocent until proven otherwise, but...
Why do you think Katzav was set up?
Maybe the victims (there are 2) are right, as well as very courageous.
Falso complaints on sexual violence are VERY rare (although when they happen they are always given much publicity). Much rarer than e.g. false complaints about theft etc. (where there is an insurance interest)
Most women never complain of the sexual violence they have undergone, because they are too scared of public judgement. You need a lot of courage to file a complaint, expecially when the perpetrator is a powerful man. After all, chances are that no one will believe you. As crimes need to be proven "beyond all doubt"(and rightfully so), more than once, VERY guilty perpetrators go free. As they say, better 100 criminals free than one innocent person in prison.
Yet it also means the sexual violence victim has to go through an ordeal in court, and many woman are very scared of that humiliation, especially because often it is "her word against his".
Thus, sexual violence has become a crime with very little risk.
I hold the victims' hands and wish them strength. I started by saying it is the court's decision, yet your assumption Katzav is not guilty and was set up...
I doubt that very much.

rockofgalilee said...

Yudit,

Thank you for your comment. I am not as much making an assumption that Katzav was set up as much as I am offering a new possibility.

One of the unique things in this case, is that Katzav already turned in a tape to the police on which the complainant is heard trying to blackmail him.
Katzav also does not have a history as a womanizer. While this does not make him innocent, it certainly doesn't give him the appearance of guilt.

JoeSettler said...

http://joesettler.blogspot.com/2006/08/president-of-israel.html

btw, I don't think he is being accused of violent rape, just that as her superior (and president) she was coerced, and due to the coercion they are calling it rape.

I still think it is out of character, but who knows anymore - nearly everyone in the government is dirty and is under investigation for some crime or another.

rockofgalilee said...

joe: she's accusing him of violent rape. At least according to the description of what she said he did in the newspaper.