A disgrace to Israel

Thursday's post is to some extent backed up by two reports in today's 'Haaretz'. In one we can read that the thirty-six year old Jawaher Abu Rahmah died on Saturday morning in a Ramallah hospital after she was exposed to tear gas that was shot by IDF soldiers to disperse  a peaceful demonstration against the separation barrier in Bil'in on Friday.  Of course, little "news" value here as crimes such as this are almost a daily occurance in the occupied territories.

Yes, little "news" value here or at least not enough to prompt a certain Ari Shavit into putting on his thinking cap. For Avit, like Ze'ev Segal a couple of days ago, appears to think that the exploits of the ex-president Moshe Katsav, disgraces Israel more than murdering innocent civilians does. Indeed, Mr Shavit even goes a step further than Mr Segal and contends that an ex-President being convicted of rape might even be a reason for Israelis to be proud of their "democracy" as he asserts that "Moshe Katsav is not the first head of state to have committed vile acts against women. But no other country has taken such strident action against its criminal leaders as Israel did with Katsav."


What a lot of nonsense and, while information on Kim Jong Il's private shenanigans is yet to be disclosed by Wikileaks and while Berlosconi does tend to embarrass himself and his country because of his antics and while Bill Clinton was given a blow job by Monica Lewinsky, we might, nevertheless, maintain with a degree of certainty that heads of states and other leading politicians "committing vile acts against women" is at least unusual. Nevertheless, as I have already stated, my concern would be more about those "other vile acts against women" ..... namely, vile acts such as the one committed against Jawaher Abu Rahmah. It is this that really disgraces the state of Israel. Still when we see Israelis time and time again seemingly being gratified by the violence which they perpetrate, a gratification which is sometimes the motivation of those who assault women, there might be a case for arguing that Moshe Katsav the rapist is in fact not too unlike the rest of his countryman.