TEL AVIV — An Israeli court sentenced former president Moshe Katsav to seven years in prison yesterday on charges of raping a former employee, capping a five-year saga that turned a working-class hero into the country’s highest-ranking official ever ordered to jail.
The case has sparked debate about equality before the law, women’s rights, and the role of the media. Vowing to appeal, Katsav shouted at the judges: “You have committed an injustice! The verdict is untrue. It is a lie. The lies have won!’’
How hilarious!!
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And now the pathetic PoS has threatened to kill himself?
Loving $omething other than $ex, if you know what I mean:
"Watchdog reviewing Netanyahu’s spending" April 01, 2011|Associated Press
JERUSALEM — Israel’s government watchdog said yesterday that he is opening an investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign and travel spending, sparking the first significant scandal in the leader’s two years in office.
The state comptroller’s investigation follows a television news report last week that said Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, took expensive flights and had hotels and restaurant meals paid for by wealthy associates during the 10-year period between his first and second terms as prime minister.
In other words, business as usual.
The investigation does not pose any imminent danger to Netanyahu....
I'm sick of the show.
Netanyahu said the news report accusations were “fabricated and tainted with hypocrisy’’ and filed a libel suit against the channel.
Oh, really? Same thing over here.
“There are journalists who don’t like me and don’t like the fact that I am prime minister,’’ he said in response to a question with YouTube’s World View Project. “The worst part is that to harm me they attack my wife.’’
In an emotional interview yesterday with Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Sara Netanyahu called the accusations “evil gossip.’’
Translation: It's all true.
I mean, he didn't deny it, did he?
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Maybe some of the "cooler heads" in Israel are seeking to remove an extremist government:
"Foreign minister of Israel faces corruption indictment; Lieberman will be given chance to challenge action" April 14, 2011|By Ethan Bronner, New York Times
JERUSALEM — Israel’s attorney general announced yesterday his intention to indict the foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, on corruption charges but said he would allow Lieberman a hearing to contest an indictment before issuing a formal charge sheet.
An aide to Lieberman said he would accept the hearing, which would probably take months to prepare for and enable him to avoid an immediate resignation from the government. If an indictment is issued after the hearing, Lieberman will probably have to resign. Since his party is the second largest in the governing coalition, that could force early elections.
The charges against Lieberman, which he vigorously denies, have been 15 years in the making and involve accusations that while in the private sector he used a company to funnel illicit gifts and contributions. The expected formal charges are money laundering and fraud.
Seems to be SOP for Israeli leaders.
The attorney general’s announcement came within minutes of a long-scheduled speech by Lieberman at the quadrennial convention of the party of which he is the chairman, the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu.
That is Ziomediaspeak for Zionist terrorist.
As a result, Lieberman took a slight detour from his hard-line political speech to say: “I know and you know that I have always acted in accordance with the law, and there is no reason to worry. After 15 years, I finally will have the opportunity to prove that I act legally.’’
He received a sustained standing ovation.
It is far from clear where the case is headed or whether it will politically damage or strengthen Lieberman, who heads the country’s third-largest party and seems to be gaining ground, especially among the young, for policies that concentrate on Arab citizens and left-wing groups whom he accuses of disloyalty.
It's the extreme Zionist settlers you rarely read about taking over. That's one reason Israelis elect the leaders they do.
Lieberman has long argued that the judicial system is run by liberals out to get him because of his political strength, and the timing of yesterday’s announcement was noted at his party’s convention as another example of that. He has said that the more the system goes after him, the more popular he will become.
A number of Israeli politicians have faced legal troubles, including a former prime minister, Ehud Olmert; a former president, Moshe Katzav; and a former finance minister, Abraham Hirchson.
Related: Olmert the Thief
All Israeli Politicians Are Corrupt
Israel's Gangster State
It's a sad conclusion, but it is the truth.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement of support for Lieberman, saying that he hoped Lieberman would prove his innocence and continue his public service. Netanyahu needs Lieberman’s party, but tensions between the two have run high in recent months as the foreign minister has publicly differed with a number of government policies.
During the speech to his party faithful, Lieberman said he was opposed to efforts to restore quiet on the border with Gaza, where tensions were high last weekend with scores of rockets hitting Israel and the Israeli military killing 18 Palestinians, some of them civilians.
An unofficial truce restored the calm. But Lieberman said that the goal should not be calm, but the overthrow of the Hamas government.
Who cares how the Palestinians voted.
He has also ridiculed the notion, once championed by Netanyahu, that peace with the Palestinians could be negotiated in the course of a year. Lieberman believes it will be decades before there can be peace.
And by that time Israel will have swallowed up all of the West Bank -- which I'm sure is the whole idea.
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I don't care who the Israelis choose to lead their country; I just want all American tax money and military hardware to cease going to that war criminal state.
