The President of Israel is to be charged with rape and abuse of power.

Does anyone know what is going on here? I don�t think even Mr Ahmadinejad has been accused of sullying his office in such ways...

Most likely Hitler wasn't a rapist either, but it's bad enough to be a genocidal anti-semite, no?

Do you have a link to those accusations, HP? If there's any substance to them, I think that'll probably be the end for Mr. Olmert.

Sure do, Phil. It�s no less than the BBC.

But Olmert is Prime Minister, not President. We are talking about Moshe Katsav. The accusations from multiple sources have circulated for some time. What is new today is that the Israeli Ministry of Justice have decided to charge him.


PS. Ahmadinejad is a dangerous extremist, no question about that. But I am convinced he won the election against Rafsanjani et al because, rightly or wrongly, Iranian voters perceived him as having personal integrity. That does not make him an acceptable head-of-state; his anti-Semitic statements and actions speak for themselves.
So I�m hardly defending him, believe me.

It is also the top headline in today�s Jerusalem Post:

"President Katsav to be indicted for rape"

Ah, my bad. Katsav. Those are serious charges indeed, and if there's any substance to them, he should resign and stand trial.

- - -

re. Ahemedinejad . . . I'll go post an update on one of our Iran threads.

Yes, serious charges. And even though I had noticed the Katsav case in the background of the news for some time, the recent development surprised me.

What I am curious about, however, is how it may influence on the precarious balance of the Knesset and Israel�s party politics.

Keep us posted, HP. This one hasn't risen to the surface in the U.S. news in many places.

Here is an article on President Moshe Katsav that seems fairly balanced, albeit from a source that may surprise some readers.

quote:

Originally posted by Phil:
[qb] Ah, my bad. Katsav. Those are serious charges indeed, and if there's any substance to them, he should resign and stand trial.
[/qb]

I don�t know about a trial, but Katsav just resigned.

quote:

Hamas's attempts to take over control of the Temple Mount as well as spread its ideology and recruit new members in Jerusalem have been foiled by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), a senior security official announced Monday.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/S...JPArticle%2FShowFull

Some may be interested to know that Mordechai Vanunu was arrested yesterday. He was the nuclear technician that blew the whistle on Israel having nuclear weapons. An offense that put him behind bars for 18 years.

His crime this time? Speaking with a foreigner.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/877367.html

quote:

Upon his release in 2004, Vanunu was banned from leaving the country and talking to foreigners without approval, because Israeli authorities claimed he could still divulge classified information.

Some two months ago, Vanunu was convicted of 14 parole violations including contacts with journalists and attempts to leave Israel proper to go to Bethlehem, which is in the West Bank.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu

quote:

While in Sydney, he met Peter Hounam, a journalist from The Sunday Times in London. In early September 1986, Vanunu flew to London with Hounam, and in violation of his non-disclosure agreement, revealed to The Sunday Times his knowledge of the Israeli nuclear program, including photographs he had secretly taken at the Dimona site

and,

quote:

Vanunu states in his letters that he intended to share the money received from the newspaper for the information with the Anglican Church of Australia.

and,

quote:

On April 22, 2004, Vanunu asked the Norwegian government for a Norwegian passport and asylum in Norway for "humanitarian reasons," according to Norwegian news agencies. He also sent applications to other countries, and stated that he would accept asylum in any country because he fears for his life. Former conservative Norwegian Prime Minister K�re Willoch has asked the conservative government to give Vanunu asylum, and the University of Troms� has offered him a job. This application, as well as an application for asylum in Sweden has been rejected, since neither country accepts absentee asylum applications.

There was considerable debate here in Norway when some people wanted to give Vanunu asylum. Willoch has taken a very clear stance on this and other issues.

I�m well aware that Vanunu violated his non-disclosure agreement. As, I suppose, did Daniel Ellsberg. I�m not sure the world is a worse place for it.

However, I don�t buy the idea of those who try to make Vanunu a hero.

This is not surprising at all, considering what has transpired over the past couple of years -

"Netanyahu: Israel's arch-hawk aiming for comeback"

http://www.breitbart.com/artic...sb8kv&show_article=1

quote:

Over the past year, however, Netanyahu's luck has changed -- opinion ratings of him and his party have risen as those of Kadima and Olmert have slid in the wake of the inconclusive Lebanon war and a string of scandals involving senior government figures.

Today Netanyahu is the public's first choice to be Israel's next prime minister -- 36 percent favoured him in a recent opinion poll, compared with eight percent for Olmert and 22 percent for former premier Ehud Barak.

The same poll showed that Likud would more than double its seats in the Knesset, winning 26, if new elections were held.

Well, that is quite a change. I wonder how he would have done things a year or so ago -- the war with Hezbollah? I've wondered, too, how things are going since the war ended?

Report: Israel spots nuclear installations in Syria
http://www.ynetnews.com/articl...40,L-3448829,00.html

quote:

Meanwhile on Wednesday the Nazareth-based Israeli Arab newspaper The Assennara cited anonymous Israeli sources as saying that Israeli jets "bombed a Syrian-Iranian missile base in northern Syria that was financed by Iran... It appears that the base was completely destroyed."

According to the Times, American officials confirmed Tuesday that Israeli jets launched an airstrike inside Syria

That is interesting, indeed.

I still remember Israel�s bombing of Iraq�s nuclear facility decades ago, a near-perfect mission of great strategic importance.

But we may well soon be paying the price for allowing Pakistan to become a nuclear power...

Yet I am wondering if the YNetNews article is conjecture or hard facts? The details still seem to be awfully sketchy, as are reports I�ve read on the BBC and elsewhere.

more on this story...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t...t/article2461421.ece

Reflections after an Israeli bombing mission in Syria
----------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for this very interesting follow-up, AMH!

If the core reporting/speculation in this article is true, congratulations for the Israelis are in order. I don�t think any of us would like the prospects of that payload being installed on Syria�s Scuds (acquired from North Korea)? It matters not whether it is Bashar or Hafez al-Assad who holds the trigger.

Where is the signature?
However, it seems to me that blasting a cache of nuclear material would leave a "signature". If I am not mistaken, one should be able to register the radiation by satellite. No?

Well, I suspect we won�t be able to purchase images or data from Ofek 7, the satellite used by the Israelis prior to their mission...

Doubting the Korean connection
I must confess I am somewhat doubtful as to North Korea�s involvement here. For years they have been seeking to use their nuclear program to leverage a non-aggression offer from the United States -- a reasonable request which the US government mysteriously has insisted on denying them!

With the recent progress, I think the North Koreans actually are on their way out. Libya has already abandoned its program, and rewarded by being recently allowed back in to the warmth of the international community. On the other hand, analyzing the strategic behaviour of the North Koreans is not the easiest of tasks...

Best regards,
HeartPrayer


PS. There is a glaring error in the Times� article. AQ Khan (an abbreviation for Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan) is described as "the disgraced creator of Pakistan�s nuclear weapons". Nothing could be further from the truth! As the daddy of Pakistan�s successful nuclear program, Dr Khan is widely considered a hero in all of the country�s political camps.

And he was pardoned by General Musharaff for his role in what in Pakistan must be seen as "that minor detail": proliferation of nuclear weapons technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran.

Dr Abdul Qadeer is no more disgraced than Wernher von Braun, the daddyo of America�s space (and missile!) program. After all, who talks about von Braun designing the V-2 for the Germans?

As Tom Lehrer wrote, explaining the good doctor�s myopic occupational focus in his hilarious "The Wernher von Braun song":

"Once ze missiles are up, who cares vheer zey land?"

from HP: For years they (North Korea) have been seeking to use their nuclear program to leverage a non-aggression offer from the United States -- a reasonable request which the US government mysteriously has insisted on denying them!

Mysteriously? The reasons have been plainly stated, beginning with the fact that our sharing nuclear technology with them in the first place was for peaceful purposes -- to help them meet their energy requirements. The refinement of nuclear material to make bombs was strictly forbidden, but they've reneged on that agreement. Their fear of aggression from the U.S. is therefore a consequence of their (leaders) own behavior, and it would be insane for the Bush admin. to acquiesce to that.

quote:

As the daddy of Pakistan�s successful nuclear program, Dr Khan is widely considered a hero in all of the country�s political camps.

That may be, but I think he is still essentially under house arrest, isn't he?

quote:

Dr Abdul Qadeer is no more disgraced than Wernher von Braun, the daddyo of America�s space (and missile!) program. After all, who talks about von Braun designing the V-2 for the Germans?

I think this is apples and oranges! Von Braun was known to be the top German rocket scientist, and he was targeted by the OAS to be recruited for the US rocket program (better than the Russians getting him - and he knew that too!). As the "father" of the US space program, he didn't then go to China, Vietnam, N. Korea, etc. to share rocket and missile secrets.

Back to the key issue:
Which is that Israel appears to have acted positively, decisively and with high precision. (By the way, not bad reporting for a Murdoch-owned newspaper. Murdoch also own Fox News and Sky News.)

Clearly the same is not possible against Iran�s nuclear program, nor against Pakistan�s should that nation risk an Islamist-oriented government.

Point taken about apples and oranges.
Perhaps we can debate North Korea further in a dedicated thread.

Here is more on the recent strike in Syria:

"Israelis seized nuclear material in Syrian raid"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t...t/article2512380.ece

quote:

Israeli special forces had been gathering intelligence for several months in Syria, according to Israeli sources. They located the nuclear material at a compound near Dayr az-Zwar in the north.

Evidence that North Korean personnel were at the site is said to have been shared with President George W Bush over the summer. A senior American source said the administration sought proof of nuclear-related activities before giving the attack its blessing.

Israel's largest cable provider to drop CNN for Al-Jazeera

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/S...JPArticle%2FShowFull

As always, more details trickle down after the fact:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/S...JPArticle%2FShowFull

quote:

The Syrian sources, who were unnamed, told Al-Khaleej that Russia and China, when apprised of Syria's concerns, sent "stern warnings" to both Jerusalem and Washington that an Israeli attack would destroy the balance of the Middle East. According to the report, China and Russia asked the United States to intervene and "rein in" what Syria perceived as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's threats of war.