Katzav and the Right Wing conspiracy theorists - Naomi Ragen

Friends,

The Right-Wing conspiracy theorists are getting on my nerves with their
commentary about the Katzav conviction.  First Steve Plaut, who I
respect enormously, and then Barry Chamish.

All you have to know is this:  Katzav first testified he never touched the
victim, his employee.  Then he changed his testimony and said the sex was
consensual. So that means he lied. She claimed it was rape, and the judges
found him to be a liar and her to be telling the truth.  She claimed that
she didn't want to lose her job by reporting him.  And I believe her as did
the judges.  Because it
makes sense, and because Katzav lied.

As for Chamish: You don't need DNA when the rapist admits he had sex with
the victim. You don't need lie detector tests, or sex crimes experts, or to
humiliate the
victims by having them testify in front of cameras. You don't need Katzav's
hair or clothing, because the man admitted he had sex with the victim.  All
you need is to decide who is telling the truth and who is a liar.


The police decided that when they interviewed the victim and perpetrator and
had them in one room confronting each other.  That's why Katzav was indicted
in the first place.  The judges decided that when they listened to their
testimony.
And the conspiracy theorists?  They decided that when they looked in the
mirror in the morning and saw they were men, not women.  They never heard
the testimony, or met the victims, unlike the police and the judges.

The only thing you need is to believe that Israeli police were doing their
job, and the Judges were doing their job and that sometimes women actually
know when they are raped, and that they deserve to be believed, even if it
takes them years to report it, and would probably never have reported it if
Katzav hadn't stupidly reported one of his victims for asking him for
compensation, claiming blackmail.  That's what broke this whole thing wide
open.  If you read the transcripts of the tapes "Aleph" made ("Aleph", who
Steven Plaut mistakenly thought was actually the one Katzav got convicted
for raping.  She wasn't.  Her testimony wasn't even in this case. She was
just another employee of Katzav who got raped by him, and her charges
weren't even included in the judgment) you'll hear a man negotiating with a
victim.

The judges made a good decision in my opinion.  And I wish these
conspiracy theorists would give it a rest already.  After all, the leftist
MK Chaim
Ramon was also found guilty by Israeli courts of indecent behavior and he
only kissed a girl.



Naomi Ragen