The Political Scandal of Moshe Katzav - Research Paper Example

Introduction: This paper talks about the political scandal of Moshe Katzav, and the political effects that the scandal created in Israel. This paper also examines the manner, in which the media covered the scandal, and whether the government censored the media. To meet the objectives of this paper, the researcher will explain who Moshe Katzav was, and thereafter the researcher will analyze the structure of the Israeli government. After this, the researcher will describe the scandal, providing a deep analysis of the political scandal. During this analysis, the researcher will provide some of his thoughts. The researcher will then move into analyzing how the media covered this scandal. This paper will then give a comparison of the media coverage of political scandals in other democratic countries, such as France, US, UK, Italy, and Germany. The researcher will then identify the actions that the government took during this period, and the reasons, after which the researcher will give some resolutions on how the government would have made this situation better. Moshe Katzav: Moshe Katzav is an Israeli politician, and he was born in 1945, December. The country of the birth of Moshe Katzav is Iran, but he travelled to Israel in 1951, and lived under an immigrant tent. Mose Katzav was the first born in his family that comprised of eight children. Mose Katzav is a highly educated individual, holding a post graduate qualification from the University of Hebrew (East and Thomas, 2003). At the age of 24 years, Mose Katzav married Gila Katzav, and together they have produced five children. In the same year, he was able to join the Likud party, and there after becoming a mayor of Kiryat Mal’akhi. In 1977, Moshe Katzav become a member of the Knesset, and in 2000, he became the president of Israel, holding office between 2000, to 2007. It is important to understand that Moshe Katzav was the 8th president of Israel. It is important to understand that Israel has a president, who is ceremonial in nature and a prime ministers who holds executive power in Israel (East and Thomas, 2003). Governance Structure: The governance structure of Israel is democratic in nature. It is important to denote that the prime minister of Israel is elected by Knesset, and it is this institution that holds legislative power in Israel (East and Thomas, 2003). Israel is one of the few countries in the world that does not have a constitution, but it relies on basic laws, initiated by Knesset for governance. On this basis, the Knesset is a very important institution in Israel, since it determines the policies that the executive initiates, and implements. The Scandal: The Moshe Katzav scandal is a sexual scandal that led to the downfall of the 8th president of Israel. Under this scandal, president Katsav was charged with raping female workers, who were assigned to work for him. For purposes of entering into a plea bargain, president Katsav resigned in the year 2007, but later on decided to change his plea. In this scandal president Moshe Katzav was found guilty of raping a woman, when he was serving as a minister of tourism between 1996, to 1999. Mr. Katsav was also convicted of sexual harassment, and indecent assault of two female employees who were working for him at his presidential residence in Jerusalem. Apart from serving the seven years in jail, the court ruled that president Katsav was to pay a compensation of 250,000 and 100,000 shekels to the victims of rape, and indecent assault (Doron, 2010). President Katsav continuously argues that he is innocent, and he accused the prosecutors of being unjust and biased against him. This scandal started after President Katsav made a complain to the attorney general of Israel that one of his former employees was blackmailing him (Doron, 2010). That is in the year 2006, and the attorney general decided to follow the case and make an investigation regarding the matter. This made the employee under consideration to complain of rape, against the president. This employee is always referred to as Plaintiff A, in the Israeli press. Political Effects: This scandal had a great impact on the Israeli political environment. First of all, this scandal had a degrading effect on the citizens of Israel. This is because the ceremonial leader of Israel was accused of rape, and the presidency is a symbol of moral authority. In fact, Benjamin Netanyahu, the then prime minister of Israel denotes that the scandal represented a sad day for Israel. It is sad in the sense that the country’s president is guilty of rape, which is a heinous crime, and it is a good thing for Israel in the sense that justice occurred for the victims of the rape (Doron, 2010). This was a symbol that the Israeli judicial system is just and fair. It is further important to denote that the Israelis were not happy with this scandal, and this is because the presidency is an office that unifies the entire country, and it is therefore an office that is above politics. On this basis, these accusations were very shameful to the citizens of Israel. This was further accelerated in the manner in which the Israelis were compared in the media, i.e. the cartoon in the media was able to portray the Israelis as rapists. The plea bargain in which the president entered with prosecutors did not augur well with the public (Doron, 2010). This is because about 20,000 youthful people went to streets demanding that justice be carried out, while women activists on the other hand accused the system of favoring high ranked government officials. The conviction of the former president is also a symbol that the nature of Israeli democratic system, whereby leaders are held accountable for their activities while in office. On this basis, the principle of equality within the law was clearly demonstrated in Israel. This scandal also led to the downfall of the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Mr. Olmert was later on charged for an offence of bribery, and this is because he received 190,000 dollars as bribe, in a property development case (Doron, 2010). Media Coverage: The media played a great role in capturing this scandal, and accelerating the fall of Mr. Moshe Katsav. It is important to denote that the Israeli media was able to capture this scandal, from its beginning, to the end of the scandal. However, the Israeli government was giving information to the media in tiny bits, because the trial was held under closed door. The reason given by this action of the government is that the individual involved was a high ranking Israeli, and openly covering the trial will result to the loss of integrity to the office of the presidency (Doron, 2010). It is important to denote that a political scandal can only be unearthed in a democracy, and this is because the media is free from censorship and government regulation. In as much as the government was censoring some information, the Israeli media played a great role in covering this trial. In fact, it is the information provided by the Israeli media concerning the plea bargain entered by the president that angered youthful citizens of Israel. On this basis, without the coverage of the media, chances are high that Moshe Katsav would have escaped justice (Doron, 2010). It is also important to denote that the international media played a great role in featuring the trial and subsequent conviction of the Moshe Katsav. International media houses such as Russia Today, BBC, France 24, the Guardian greatly reported on this scandal, and the word Katsav was greatly searched in the social media. Democratic countries normally allow international and local media to cover any aspect of importance to the public (CQ PRESS, 2008). Countries such as United Kingdom, Germany, and United States have a very vibrant media, and that is because of the nature of their democratic political system. Take for instance in Italy, where the Italian press covered significantly the underage prostitution scandal of the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. This media coverage made the prime minister to resign, ending his political career (Pirani, 2010). The Italian media was widely obsessed with this scandal, and it dedicated a lot of efforts to cover every bit of this political scandal. The nature of the Italian democratic system allows a free flow of information, and on this basis the Italian press could give any humiliating information it had uncovered concerning this scandal (Schott, Lovejoy and Schott, 2008). In United States, one of the famous political scandals is the Eliot Spitzer scandal. Eliot Spitzer was the governor of New York, and he was reportedly accused on being involved in a prostitution ring between 2007, and 2008. This scandal was widely reported by the media, and Mr. Eliot was forced to stand down as governor, or face impeachment. How Democracies Deal with Political Scandals: On most occasions, democracies normally require those accused in a scandal to resign. For instance in Israel, the Knesset forced Mr. Moshe Katsav to resign. Members of Moshe’s party, Likud supported protests against the president, and members of the Mertz party threatened to boycott all his parliamentary addresses (Lévy-Willard, 2007). Most democracies normally impeach, and prosecute the people involved in the scandals. This was the case with President Clinton, during the Monica Lewinsky saga, Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy, etc. The reason of this action is that the political leaders are always accountable for their actions when they are in office. How the Government should have handled the situation: The government of Israel should have allowed a wide coverage of this trial, as opposed to a closed door trial. Mr. Moshe was an important figure in the Israeli government, and on this basis, the trial would have served as a warning and an example to leaders who are abusing their office (Pirani, 2010). The complainant on the other hand, would have acted as an example of a victim who was able to break her silence, and accuse a glorified figure for rape. Conclusion: In conclusion, this political scandal was a shameful, and resulting to an end of the political career of President Moshe Katsav. In as much as the government censored some information, the media was able to actively report this scandal, and this is because of the democratic nature of the Israeli government. It is therefore correct to denote that for democracy to prevail in any given state, there must be a free flow of information. This means that the media must be independent from the control of the government. Bibliography: Doron, G. (2010). Law and government in Israel. London: Routledge. East, R., & Thomas, R. (2003). Profiles of people in power: the worlds government leaders. London: Europa. CQ PRESS. (2008). Political handbook of the Middle East 2008. Washington, D.C., CQ Press. Lévy-Willard, A. (2007). Summer rain. London, Psychology News. Pirani, S. (2010). Change in Putins Russia: power, money and people. London, Pluto Press. Schott, B., Lovejoy, B., & Schott, B. (2008). Schotts miscellany 2009: an almanac. New York, Bloomsbury. Read More