Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Israel's National Disgrace

Good grief, there's nothing quite as unsavoury as crooked politicians. Challenge me on that. Tell me how I'm wrong, that my opinion is sadly superficial, has no basis in fact, no merit in truth. I'm waiting. Waiting. Time's up.

The President, yes the President of Israel identified as a sexual predator, an abusive molester of women, an egotistical scumbag extraordinaire. How veddy nice. How does a country live that down? Oh, the scumbag will live with it. How about his wife, his five children, his six grandchildren. Or perhaps they already knew the inner man and weren't surprised. His colleagues? They knew nothing?

This disgusting excuse for a man, let alone the country's top political figure - even if he's a mere figurehead in the position he holds - is facing charges of rape. At 60 years of age one would reasonably anticipate someone of his stature might have learned some social verities; the primary one of which is not to bring disgrace upon yourself, your family, your country.

Ah, perhaps it was his political stature, not his personal acumen that persuaded him he could do no wrong. Actions which would appear horrible in nature when prosecuted by others could be overlooked because of his high office. He said as much, he obviously believed it when his victim fought back and he responded delightfully with: "I'm the President and you're nothing" after brutally raping the woman.

Well, a woman could conceivably bear a grudge for any number of reasons and bring unsubstantiated charges of such a serious nature against someone, could she not? This is a repeat offender. It was not merely one woman to whom he meted out his brutal advances. A number of women have brought forward details of his lust, his brutality, his predatory behaviour; details of his raping technique. One of them his office manager.

That's sad and serious anti-social, sociopathic behaviour in a respected politician. But wait, he's not alone, not entirely. It would seem that in Israel long and distinguished careers of public service go hand in hand with personal avail. Obviously many Israeli politicians have a different take on the free enterprise system. In other countries they call this kind of political corruption being "on the take".
  • These very enterprising men see it as their just due to take freely from this sterling system. The Yiddish word for it is Grobe Yung. The Prime Minister himself, Ehud Olmert is under investigation for possible corruption involving several property deals in Jerusalem.
  • A senior member of the Kadima party and chairman of parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee, Tzahi Hanegvi was indicted in September over unlawful appointsments allegedly made while a government minister.
  • Omri Sharon, son of former prime minister Ariel Sharon was sentenced in February to 9 months in prison on corruption charges in connection with the financing of his father's campaign for the Likud leadership in 1999.
  • Benjamin Netanyahu, former prime minister and now chief of the Likud party was investigated in 1999 on allegations he planned to use public funds to pay for work done on his private residence.
  • Ezer Weizman, a true elder statesman of the State of Israel, resigned in July 200 after revelations he received $450,000US as "gifts" from a French millionaire when he was an MP and government minister in the 1980s.
  • In 2000 the Trasnsport Minister, Yitzhak Mordechai resigned after being charged with sexually assaulting a female employee - he was given a 18-month suspended sentence.
  • Former chief of the ultra-orthodox Shas party was sentenced in 2001 to three years in prison for corruption and breach of trust.
Well, that's fairly well representative of political parties across the board (Labour; you there?). These dysfunctional politicians celebrate equal opportunity as their nation's top crooks and miscreants.

Governing a country becomes an equal opportunity smorgasbord.

How reassuring. How utterly disgraceful.

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