Moshe Katsav – Shame, Fury and Pride

The eighth president of Israel, Moshe Katzav, is now a convicted rapist, after a three-judge panel of the Tel Aviv District Court issued a unanimous decision to that effect. A man honored upon his election just a decade ago as a boy from the slums who made it to the top, he is now reviled as a common sexual criminal. 

The judges noted the brutal crimes and the malicious technique he developed to ensnare his victims—employees of the offices that he directed—but Mr. Katzav has not acknowledged any misbehavior. On the contrary, he charged the women who complained against him with joining in a conspiracy to bring him down. In addition to a legal dream-team of well-known defense attorneys, he hired high-powered PR firms to tilt the media in his favor. 

Others in Israel face questions about their handling of the Katzav case. At one point, the attorney general at the time offered a plea bargain that would have spared Katzav the rape convictions and possible jail time. At first he accepted, but then, at the last minute, dramatically declined. (Ironically, in the time between his refusal of the plea bargain and the trial, new evidence came to light that strengthened the case against him.) To its credit, the prosecution has expressed a desire to reexamine the way it functioned in the crisis. This bodes well for future complainants and offers some solace to Israelis, particularly Katzav’s victims. 

To understand the depth of the crisis for the institution of the presidency, it is important to appreciate the essentially symbolic and educational nature of that office. Unlike France or the United States, in Israel the president has almost no actual power. Elected by the Knesset, the president leads by example, filling ceremonial roles like accepting the credentials of foreign ambassadors; signing off on the appointment of the governor of the Bank of Israel, judges and ambassadors; and consulting with the Knesset in order to determine which MK he will invite to form a government. The office’s main executive function lies in its power to pardon convicts. 

Most of those who have held the office enhanced the symbolic importance the country attaches to the post. They included top-flight pre-state Zionist leaders like Chaim Weizmann, along with highly-regarded political figures like Chaim Herzog. The current president is the widely admired Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres. However, the two presidents who preceded Peres left office under scandal. Ezer Weizman was forced to resign when it became apparent that he had accepted large amounts of money from businesspeople without reporting the income appropriately. While the statue of limitations prevented him from coming to trial, he died in disgrace. Weizman was succeeded by Katzav. Both of these failed presidents were elected by the Knesset, which shares responsibility for their fiascos. Peres, meanwhile, has been widely credited with resuscitating the stature of the presidency. 

Harsh feelings dominate public discussion at this time: there is the shame that he was our president, and fury at the way the abuse of his victims was unintentionally abetted by people who should have known better. But Israelis also feel pride in the ultimate triumph of a legal system that, under the most difficult circumstances, showed that no one is above the law. The dust will settle from the Katzav conviction, but now, amidst the widespread rush of strong emotions, is not a good time to make fundamental constitutional decisions about the office of the presidency. But hard questions about that institution will eventually have to be addressed. 

Other branches of Israel’s government show parallel dysfunctions, long-term failures of governance such as the years of neglect that resulted in ill-equipped firefighters confronting the Carmel fire or the fact that former Prime Minister Olmert is facing corruption charges. Indeed, no constitutional system is without dysfunctions. Former French President Jacques Chirac is on trial for corruption, and we recall the impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton. 

But the current Israeli multiparty coalition-based system, with its non-executive president, seems particularly prone to mischief. The logic behind the position is that the president has a principled role above politics, but the two previous presidents did not maintain that moral standard, and in the Katzav case, the judiciary had to step in it saved the credibility of Israel’s governance, where the executive and legislative branches had misfired miserably. 

The last time Israel attempted a major constitutional change was the direct election of prime ministers, and it failed. Few Israelis seem enthusiastic about another major change. Quietly, though, one begins to hear suggestions that an executive presidency along with a regional constituency-based Knesset may be better able to serve the people of Israel, answer to them, and lead them.

First published at http://bit.ly/1lKo5Gt