Unfaithfulness and Punishment: The Katzav Version

By Moshe Feiglin

8 Shevat, 5771
Jan. 13, '11

Translated from the NRG website

Moshe Katzav is guilty of what nobody dared accuse him, and completely innocent of the main crimes for which he was convicted. Harassment of one sort or another may have taken place in this story. If it happened, it is reprehensible. But rape? Certainly not.

It was not the media and judicial lynch that reached its crescendo last week with Katzav's conviction that convinced me that Moshe Katzav conducted himself in an ugly manner. The impression that a person like me, who made an effort not to listen to the cacophony of accusations surrounding this story since its inception, has - is that fidelity was not a top priority for Israel's eighth president. If this impression is true, it is enough reason for the man to be punished.

The problem is, though, that if we use the parameters of harassment and disloyalty, we would have to demand trials for many of our leaders, past and present; prime ministers, ministers, Supreme Court justices and senior defense officials.

It does not seem reasonable to me that a victim of rape would "turn the world upside down" in the words of the court, to return to work with the man who "raped" her, and would send him love letters - and all of this would not awaken a reasonable doubt with the three judges. But despite the fact that nothing could be proven and that there was much more than reasonable doubt in this case, the judges would have had to be made of steel to acquit Katzav in the public "lynch" atmosphere that this story has generated.

The cultural platform for the media/judicial lynch against Katzav is based on betrayal. It is steadily gaining ground. Disloyalty to any solid reality is the name of the game: Disloyalty to G-d, Whom we have been denying for almost 200 years, disloyalty to our nation, our Land, our state, our community, our family, our spouses and even our own gender identity.

To realize this vision of betrayal, the attack has to be focused on separation/borders and authority. To create the world - solid reality, life - G-d had to separate between the heavens and dry land, between earth and water. Life begins when the cell differentiates and divides. The power of life is the power to preserve these borders. And the preservation of borders requires authority. Without borders between distinct entities and the authority that preserves them in their place, the world would return to its primordial chaotic state.

Feminism undermines all structure by breaking down the most basic authority in human society - the authority that builds the family unit. The result is that the woman is expected to function as a man - making women the main victims of feminism. All that is left of her femininity is her body, which quickly falls victim to the latest criminal or fashion outrages.

For his part, the man has to be a bit feminine; to shave his body, pierce it and tattoo it. There is no room anywhere for love. Instead, a war is waged between the genders. New, impossible laws attempt to restore some order to the resulting chaos, to no avail. The more laws legislated to protect women, the more they suffer harassment and violence.

The "coalition" identified a fat fish with which to fulfill its vision of a world without structure or authority; a man at the top of the pyramid; the President himself. Not only is he a man, but he is of Sephardic descent, traditional, a Likud politician - the symbol of all the "primitive" authority that we are trying to undermine.

While we're at it, we will strengthen the judicial branch at the expense of the legislative branch, the status of the Left against the Right that dared elect a president that was "one of their own" and the status of the media, directly attacked by Katzav. And so, a truly unholy alliance was forged against the man. Moshe Katzav had no chance - and maybe he didn't deserve it.

I do not identify with the practice of some religious people who explain others' misfortunes as Divine punishment. Some people in the Orange camp like to show how whoever had a hand in the Expulsion from Gush Katif has since suffered hardships. One must admit that statistically, there is food for thought in this claim. G-d does run the world and sometimes poetic justice is quite visibly at work. Nobody, though, can really understand G-d's reasons for afflicting some and not others. Second-guessing Him on why a particular person suffers a particular hardship does not add anything to our service of G-d.

In Katzav's case, though, he himself has considered this connection. After the accusations against him made headlines, he met one of the main anti-Expulsion activists. With no prompting and totally of his own initiative, Katzav said to him: "I am not guilty of what I am being accused, but I know that this is happening to me because of the way that I treated the residents of Gush Katif."

The political camp that worked to get Katzav elected to the presidency expected that when Israel turned into Sodom and perpetrated the grand rape of the Gush Katif settlers -the victims would find a warm shoulder of support at the President's residence. Loyalty - remember?

But President Katzav chose instead to render his services to the coalition of betrayal and destruction. "From the time that the decision was made, you must accept it," the President broadcast live to the victims on the eve of their destruction. Now, when the same coalition has dug its claws into his own body, he must demand of himself what he demanded of them - and accept his fate.

When all is said and done, I wish Moshe Katzav a long life of pleasure from his lovely family. He can likely look forward to the Garden of Eden after he dies - because in this world, he has already been through Hell.