Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Anyone who spends any time reading the Israeli press knows about the sorry mess the country finds itself in. I’m not talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict though that is a sorry mess. I’m talking about the rampant corruption and self-dealing of both the political and business class. A senior minister is convicted of French-kissing a young soldier, yet it appears he’s about to be reappointed a minister. Ariel Sharon’s son is convicted of political corruption. Ehud Olmert himself stands accused of various business deals that enriched himself handsomely. The day the Lebanon war began the chief of staff took time out of his supposedly busy schedule to personally call his bank to sell a substantial portion of his portfolio presumably because he knew it might tank during a war.

But the episode that has me exercised tonight is the “get out of jail free” card Israel’s attorney general handed to Israeli president Moshe Katsav who was about to stand trial on rape charges:

Israel’s disgraced president, Moshe Katsav, submitted his resignation to Parliament on Friday morning amid fierce public criticism over the deal by which rape charges against him were dropped in exchange for an admission of guilt for lesser offenses.

Moshe Katsav sent a letter of resignation to the speaker of Parliament on Friday. It will take effect on Monday and he will serve no jail time.

Mr. Katsav’s resignation will take effect on Monday, when he will be charged with committing an indecent act without consent, sexual harassing two women and harassing a witness, the attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, said Thursday…

The deal and Mr. Mazuz came under harsh attack. Yediot Aharonot, the largest newspaper in the country, headlined the arrangement “A Deal of Shame” on the front page. Mordechai Kremnitzer of Hebrew University, one of Israel’s pre-eminent legal scholars, told Israel Radio that Mr. Mazuz had “sinned” and had “damaged the principle of equality before the law.”

Ordinarily, just one offense of indecent assault would warrant seven years in prison, according to Emmanuel Gross, a law professor at Haifa University, and in this case probably more, because the charge is aggravated by an abuse of power. But Mr. Katsav will receive a one-year suspended sentence and pay less than $12,000 in compensation to the two women.

Why the firestorm? Because he stood accused of raping employees in the President’s mansion. In addition, when he was a lowly government minister he had also engaged in similar harassing behavior toward his female subordinates. He had a history that was well-documented.

After the story first broke, he and his supporters exerted pressure on the victims and other witnesses not to participate in the investigation. This is a person who deserved to have the book thrown at him. Instead of seven years in the slammer and paying substantial restitution to his victims, he gets off with barely a slap on the wrist. We are supposed to feel that justice is being done because Katsav has to publicly admit his crimes in court before being sentenced. I’m sorry but this is hollow and turns Israeli justice into an empty shell.

Why does a powerful Israeli pol once again walk away from punishment after engaging in acts of violence against women? First, it seems there is a definite good old boy network at play in which pols protect pols. Second, the attorney general appears to have felt it more important to protect the ‘dignity’ of the office of the President than to protect the women of Israel from a sexual predator. This from Haaretz:

Mazuz said he believes the agreement was in the public’s interest. “This agreement minimizes the harm to the institution of the presidency,” the attorney general said. “It was important to spare Israel the sight of a president on trial.”

Third, Israeli society is filled with rampant sexism that justifies, whether overtly or covertly, the subordination of women and their interests.

Interestingly, the attorney general has refused a request by Haaretz to release the original indictment against Katsav so the public can compare the original charges with the final plea deal to see what was given away. Yet another example of the lack of transparency that afflicts Israeli justice.

Thankfully, someone is protesting against this sham and shame of justice:

On Sunday morning a petition is to be submitted to the High Court of Justice to vacate the plea bargain. The petition is to be submitted by the Movement for Quality Government; the Israel Women’s Network; Itach, a women’s social action association; and the umbrella organization The Women’s Coalition.

The organizations will also ask the High Court to issue an interim order to stop the approval process of the plea bargain. “The extreme lack of reasonableness in Mazuz’s decision,” the petition states, “stems from the fact that he backtracked on his original intention to indict the president with more serious accusations - including rape and serious indecent acts.”

Gideon Levy’s current column lambasts Mazuz for his capitulation:

Menachem Mazuz has made it [the Israeli justice system] irrelevant. For the second time in his career, Mazuz flinched at the moment of truth and retreated: He did so the first time in the Greek island affair [a corruption scandal involving Ariel Sharon] and now with regard to Moshe Katsav.

Someone who has succeeded until now in creating the impression that he is carrying out his role with courage and integrity has made the blunder of a lifetime - for the second time. Someone who just days ago delivered a scathing speech condemning the corruption spreading through Israeli society made a decision that increases the lack of trust in the justice system, the inequality before the law and the reticence of a large number of victims from filing complaints.

…An Israel that places its president on trial without cutting any deals is a much stronger Israel than one that lacks equality before the law, one in which hearings - for VIPs only - can change matters completely.

… We are left with a large doubt eating away at our hearts: Did we have a rapist president or a failed attorney general?

…Now Mazuz came and told the complainant: “Save yourself this disgrace. There’s no point in it.” Years of efforts to encourage victims of sexual assault to summon the courage to complain suddenly collapsed. From now on, every Hebrew woman will know: If your boss has harassed you again, pulled out his sexual organ or pinned his body against yours by the bookcase, has suggested that you come to work without underwear or has even raped you - deal with it on your own. Mazuz’s state will not come to your defense, particularly when a public official is involved.

tags attorney-general-mazuz, katsav-plea-deal-no-prison-time, moshe-katsav-israeli-president-rape, sexual-abuse

Abraham Cahan is turning over in his grave. The trail-blazing founder of the Jewish Daily Forward created one of the first advice columns in American journalism, the Bintel Brief. The Forward editors are turning over the latter day version of the column to Alan Dershowitz (yup, you heard me right). Imagine Dersh as a neocon Ann Landers. I’d laugh at this if it weren’t so cruelly and darkly ironic:

Alan Dershowitz is one of the most famous names in the American legal profession, his counsel highly sought after. Now he will be offering his counsel to our readers, as the Forward’s next Bintel Brief guest advice columnist.

In addition to his stellar legal career, the famed Harvard Law professor has distinguished himself as one of America’s leading Jewish activists and most prolific pundits. With such books as “The Vanishing American Jew,” “The Case for Israel” and “The Case for Peace,” he has shaped the Jewish communal conversation.

Are you facing a Jewish dilemma, an ethical conundrum or family difficulties? Could you use some advice related to advocacy or activism? Send your questions for the Bintel Brief to bintelblog at forward dot com.

Check the Forward’s Web site Mondays in July for new installments of the Bintel Brief, featuring Dershowitz dispensing some wise counsel.

His “counsel highly sought after?” A “stellar career?” “America’s leading Jewish activist and prolific pundit?” Dershowitz’s “wise counsel?” Surely they jest. I especially like the suggestion that readers ask about their ‘ethical conundrums.’ Does the shaister who suggested that Norman Finkelstein believed his Shoah-survivor mother was a kapo have the right to utter one word about anyone else’s “ethical conundrums?”

Back in the day, the original Bintel Brief used to give advice to the love-lorn. It helped Jewish immigrants through the suffering of emigration and taught them to adapt to the New World. It always tried to speak plainly, simply and honestly to common folk. It always tried to make them a little better human beings. What can Alan Dershowitz have to say on that score to latter day Jews?

I’d like to suggest a contest. Perhaps some other progressive bloggers can join in. Let’s think of the most damaging advice we can ask Dershowitz involving his own ethically-challenged, demagogic, lying, scummy, baiting, dishonest behavior. It won’t get into The Forward. But we can have some fun with it. Readers, I challenge your wit with my own contribution:

Tyereh Professor: I am a recent immigrant to this country who escaped the Cossacks and the Czar’s army to arrive here in the Goldene Medinah, land of the free. Tell me, when you justify torture how are you any different than the tyrants I fled in Russia?

Maybe a Lebanese can write in and ask advice about how he can rebuild a life shattered with the help of pro-Israel ideologues like Big D. who justified Israel’s decimation of Lebanon. Maybe Norman Finkelstein can ask what to do in the case of a someone whose promotion is derailed by a spiteful, evil colleague.

HTML Mencken at Sadly, No! has given this news the acid satirical treatment it so richly deserves. It should be read and chuckled over.

I should make clear that I genuinely admire The Forward. But this idea has really come a cropper. Any humor we wring out of this is fully deserved.

tags advice-column, alan-dershowitz, bintel-brief, jewish-forward

Yup, that’s a knock-out statistic from the just released Pew Global Attitudes Survey (full report and summary report) of international attitudes toward the U.S. and its international role and policies:

Even in Israel, a slim 42% plurality says America is too supportive of their country, while 13% say the U.S. favors the Palestinians too much and 37% say U.S. policies are fair.

So take that Republican Jewish Coalition when you attempt to paint the Democratic Party as “soft” on Israel because members polled found U.S. policy tilted toward Israel. Even Israelis believe this! And notably, vast majorities in almost every country polled agree that U.S. policy is overly favorable toward Israel–with the sole exception of the U.S. itself:

About a third of Americans (34%) see U.S. policy in the region as fair, 27% say it favors Israel, and 8% say it favors the Palestinians.

tags pew-global-attitudes-project, u.s.-mideast-policy-favors-israel

Tony Blair hasn’t even begun his new role as Mideast peace envoy for the Quartet before the disagreements started to fly about precisely what he was supposed to do. And it doesn’t bode well for Tony. According to the U.S., Tony has a purely technical role to play in encouraging Palestinian nation-building. He will not, I repeat, NOT play any role in political negotiations. Got that? We get this from Condi Rice who wants everyone to know that Tony’s not going to muscle in on her turf:

In his new role as envoy to the Middle East, Tony Blair will be charged with shoring up Palestinian institutions, but not with trying to nail down a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians because Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, is handling that job herself, administration officials said Wednesday.

And a bang-up job she’s doing I might add. At least she’s gotten Abbas and Olmert to agree to meet biweekly in principle. And they also have learned how to sing “working toward a political horizon” in lovely two-part harmony. Other than that, I can’t figure out what she’s been doing with her time in the Israel-Palestine region.

Helene Cooper quotes Aaron David Miller on the problematics of Blair’s appointment and Miller is right on the money:

Some Middle East analysts said Wednesday that such a narrow mandate would hamper Mr. Blair’s chances for success.

Indeed, the lack of a link between final status talks and the building of Palestinian institutions is the crux of why previous attempts have been unsuccessful, those analysts say.

“Unless he has the authority to deal with the Israelis on the issue of movement and lifting of barriers, he’s not going to get very far,” said Aaron David Miller, a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center who was a senior adviser for Arab-Israeli relations at the State Department under the last three presidents.

“If this is a variation of the Jim Wolfensohn portfolio, where you have a very smart guy who is thrown at the economics of the Palestinian issue, but without the authority to help change the situation on the ground, then this isn’t going to work,” Mr. Miller said.

If the following quotation is accurate (and I wouldn’t credit anything anyone in this Administration says especially when it is spoken anonymously) then Blair just hasn’t “gotten” how hopelessly toothless is the structure of the position he’s accepted:

A senior Bush administration official maintained that Mr. Blair did not press American officials to allow him to take on the final status issues. “That was not a source of conflict,” the official said. He asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.

And if this report in Haaretz is accurate and current, then Tony has some rough-sledding ahead:

The Quartet representatives were unable yesterday to reach agreement on the mandate for outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair when he takes up his new post as the Quartet’s special envoy for the Middle East peace process. UN representative Michael Williams, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Yakovlev, European Union representative Mark Otte and U.S. assistant secretary of state David Welch met yesterday for three hours in Jerusalem, mostly focusing on the Blair appointment. Officials in Jerusalem said there were disagreements between the U.S. and the UN, which approve of the appointment, and Russia and the EU, who object.

This is tantamount to an employer hiring someone before they’ve fully agreed on what his job description is supposed to be. But not to worry, Tony’s served as Bush’s trusted poodle for so long I’m sure he won’t stray from the script and actually try to do anything terribly substantive that might step on Condi’s toes.

tags aaron-david-miller, Blair-to-Tackle-Economics-Not-Peace-Efforts-Task-Reserv, helene-cooper, quartet-mideast-peace-envoy, u.s.-mideast-peace-policy

Allyson Rowen Taylor was in her element at an interfaith screening of A Mighty Heart in Los Angeles. During the panel discussion featuring a representative of CAIR and Rabbi Dov Beliak among others, Taylor lit up the room with her bilious Islamophobia “likening CAIR’s involvement to ‘David Duke co-sponsoring ‘Schindler’s List. The only reason they like this film is because it’s about a dead Jew…’”

Variety must’ve thought it made for a good Jewish cat fight as it featured an entire story about Taylor’s eruption. Naturally, the right-wing blog world has taken up the cause. Why? Besides the fact that the panel discussion actually included a Muslim organization, which implies that Muslims don’t actually relish the idea of killing Jews like Pearl, the Israel super-patriot crowd detests CAIR, likening it to an Arab terror group. In addition, I’m guessing that the film is insufficiently anti-Muslim for Judea Pearl, Daniel Pearl’s neocon father, and folks like Rowen Taylor.

But before anyone else takes up this cause they ought to stop and examine their Joan of Arc. Rowen Taylor is the same person who provided dubious (in my opinion) supporting testimony claiming Rabbi Chaim Seidler Feller initiated a physical attack upon Rachel Neuwirth. She is the very same person who wrote a harassing message to the personal e mail account of Adam Horowitz, an American Friends Service Committee staff member, asking “why do you hate being a Jew, why are you in favor of murdering Jews??.” (By the way, thanks again to Muzzlewatch for providing the tip that led to this story and its coverage by The Forward). It’s the same Rowen Taylor who wrote a comment at Amazon about Jimmy Carter’s best seller: “This is a work of a man who clarly [sic] is in cahoots with the radical Islamofacists…”

If Variety or anyone else wishes to make Rowen Taylor their poster girl regarding this movie they should know she’s a well-known trash talker–anti-Muslim slurs, her speciality. All Daniel Pearl represents for her is an opportunity to promote her Islamophobic agenda. I guess a “dead Jew” (her phrase, not mine) is as good a figure as any to serve her purposes.

By the by, Variety tantalizingly writes about Rowen Taylor’s recent job history, she “has been involved in orgs such as the American Jewish Congress and Stand With Us.” Wonder if she’s bailed out of Stand With Us just as she bailed from AJCongress. If so, that would be a very short stay with the former employer. Perhaps they found her as loose a cannon as the AJCongress’ director did when he spoke with me about her job performance. Nah, given Stand With Us’ Israel super-patriotism and allergy to Muslims, she and that group are a match made in heaven. I’m guessing she’s still working with them, but some clarification is in order.

Hat tip to Muzzlewatch for this story.

UPDATE: Thanks to Rabbi Dov Beliak, a panel member at the screening discussion, for writing a comment below denouncing the types of attitudes represented by poor, twisted Allyson in her tirade against CAIR.

tags a-mighty-heart-film, allyson-rowen-taylor, american-jewish-congress, cair, daniel-pearl, islamophobia, judea-pearl, variety

No, they're not talking officially through their governments. But they are talking via the media and what they have to say is interesting. As you will read below, the idea that the two sides are not talking is a fiction. In the article, Haaretz's media critic discusses an interview with Israeli TV and the Hamas spokesperson, Ghazi Hamad. The idea that the two sides SHOULD NOT talk is almost criminal. The idea that the two sides will never talk is ridiculous. The sooner the better. Even after Hamas' brutal performance in assuming violent control of Gaza, the idea that Israel and the U.S. can magically erase Hamas from the Palestinian ...

Whew. Condi had me going there for a second. I thought she believed there was something wrong with all those people in the Middle East who aren't taking a shine to our prescriptions for how they should govern themselves and live their lives. But now that I know she really believes there's nothing wrong with them, I feel totally reassured: Nearly a year after she was ridiculed for calling a war in Lebanon ''the birth pangs of a new Middle East,'' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is insisting democracy will come to the region whatever the setbacks... ''Democracy is hard, and I see it as especially hard when there are determined enemies who try and strangle it,' Yes, indeed. ...

Happy to report that Scott McConnell, editor of The American Conservative Magazine, asked me to review Dore Gold's new book, The Fight for Jerusalem. The review appears in the July 2nd issue (print-only alas) as The Case for Not Sharing (not sure I'm wild about the title, which I didn't choose) on page 31. It was an interesting experience to review a book I largely detested (with only one book section as an exception). At this blog, I have the liberty of writing about ideas, authors, books and music I admire. I sometimes write about things I dislike, but I never do so when it comes to works of art like books or music. ...

The quickness with which much of the world (except Qatar, Indonesia, South Africa, and Russia, who nixed a U.S. sponsored Security Council resolution pledging eternal love to Mahmoud Abbas) has lined up with the Sunshine Boys, Ehud and George, in supporting the new and improved West Bank First policy brings to mind the desperate passengers on the Titanic looking for any way to escape their fate. I can imagine water rushing in one way and a deck steward shouting: "I have an idea--follow me!" as he tears off in the opposite direction with a few hearty souls in hot pursuit, only to find another wall of water pushing forward from the other direction to overwhelm him. In this spirit, ...

Anthony Cordesman, in a revealing NY Times interview with Bernard Gwertzman, paints a sobering picture of what a truly militant Hamas might do if it felt cornered by IDF onslaught and shut out of power by Abbas' Fatah forces: Now who’s going to be backing the Hamas force? Iran? There don’t seem to be Arab states around that are likely to back Hamas. We need to wait and see what Hamas does—whether it tries to adopt a more moderate cover—but this is already a game where Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah in Lebanon have played a significant role. There is a vast flood of private capital in the Arab world, much of it in the hands of people who are not under ...