Katsav

It usually takes several days for the glow of Succot in Jerusalem to wear off.

But shortly after returning ‘home’ to London, I caught the TV news.

“The president of Israel is to be charged for rape.”

What an utterly gut-wrenching thing to hear; not least from a British newsroom.

The highest elected official in the land of ‘the people of the book’ – branded a common rapist!

What kind of light is this unto the nations?

It’s hard to believe that only a few months ago Katsav was being tipped as a future leader and uniter of the right wing parties.

Could there be something more sinister involved here? Just look at all the leaks and misinformation which have been peddled by ‘officials’. It sounds more like character assassination than a genuine interest in natural justice. One wonders what Shimon Peres must be thinking as he watches the destruction of the man who stole the office he so coveted.

Let’s not forget that it was Katsav who first blew the whistle by reporting he was being blackmailed by Miss A. The transcript of Katsav’s recording of their conversation clearly shows $200,000 being demanded.

Let’s also not forget that instead of 10 other complainants rumoured to be coming forward, all the police could trawl up after all these weeks was just 2 other women. That's a total of just 3 accusers from a staff of perhaps dozens of female secretaries and clerks who must have served Katsav in his private and public career.

And bizarrely, all 3 women were quite content to go back to work for their supposed abuser.

Let’s also not forget that blackmail is a criminal offence; not least the blackmail of a state president. But there is no sign the police intend to press such charges against Miss A, despite the damning evidence on tape. Has a deal has been done in exchange for some lurid testimony?

Just a few weeks ago in London, two judges were embroiled in a sex scandal with an illegal immigrant whom they shared as a cleaner and lover. It started when one of the judges reported to the police that the cleaner was blackmailing her. Under English law it seems that the identity of a blackmail victim must be protected and, to this day, her identity is not officially known.

Was Katsav not entitled to at least the same protection until the case was proven?

Maybe so, but Chief Danino's special investigations unit seems to have done its best to hang out the president to dry in the full glare of Israeli public opinion and thereby defame the Jewish state in the world’s media.

My bet is that what started as a rape charge will end up with ‘conduct unbecoming a president’. And there has been no shortage of world leaders who have fallen victim to high levels of testosterone without which I daresay they might never have made it to the top in the first place.

I may be wrong. But even if it turns out that Katsav had sex with all three women against their will, it is nothing compared to what Olmert has been doing to millions of Israelis. This unelected prime minister, at the head of a party elected on a platform of lies, has date-raped the entire country with a hypnotic cocktail of falsehoods about disengagement and the missile threat from the north.

After a month cowering under a hail of missiles, the citizens of Israel emerged from their shelters feeling raped and violated by their leaders and all the ‘yes’ men they had put in control of the nation’s defence.

Let’s hope that the commission investigating the Lebanon debacle goes about its enquiries with at least the same fanatical zeal as the police investigation into Katsav.