Former President Moshe Katzav requested leave from prison on Sunday in order to spend time with his family for the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Katzav, who petitioned the Lod District Court, is serving a seven-year sentence for rape and sexual assault.

His last furlough from prison was on March 16, for the holiday of Purim, but in his request, the former president claimed “special circumstances” in which prisoners may apply for furloughs.

Katzav petitioned the district court because the Israel Prison Service denied his request for another furlough, citing a rule stating the minimum period of time required between vacations.

Under the law, he is not technically eligible for more “vacation” time from prison until at least a month after Passover.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has joined former Israeli President Moshe Katzav and President Richard Nixon, all of them straight as a snake and who insisted they were not guilty to the smelly end.

“This is a sad day for the State of Israel”, President Shimon Peres said after the guilty verdict.

Sad?

Olmert has beaten almost every investigation against him. When he was finally indicted on three criminal charges two years ago, he was acquitted on two of  them, and his leftist media following sang Hallelujah for his being convicted of “only” a relatively minor charge and receiving a suspended one-year sentence in jail.

It is not that the leftist and anti-national religious crowd loved Olmert. They also did not love Ehud Barak, but both of them were the selfish establishment’s great hopes to keep the reins of power in the hands of the minority elite, such as former Bank of Poalim chairman Danny Dankner, who also has been convicted in the stinky bribery cases involving Olmert.

Olmert, like many others before him and many who are in office today but have escaped the short arm of the law, is a parasite. He lives off the system inherited from the Turks and the Brits, a system of bribery and favors that is accepted practice in Middle Eastern societies.

Israel, unlike its Arab neighbors, is in the midst of a non-violent revolution that slowly is getting rid of corruption,

It is a long and difficult task because it is inbred in the system, just as sexual favors are part and parcel of high positions where officials they are so successful that they assumed they have been crowned as legal leeches.

The worse part of it is that all of them claim they are not guilty, for the understandable reason that they simply did what others did but made the mistake of being caught.

Moshe Katsav, former president of Israel, was guilty and still claims he never raped his victim although the judicial system accepted testimony to the contrary.

“Tricky Dick” Nixon was a lawyer and political hack who likewise fed off the system of immorality and paid the proper price of impeachment.

All of them were correctly judged guilty by the public before being proven they were not innocent, and that apparently undemocratic attitude is a natural reaction to a system that time after time is not clever enough for the con men that want to grease the corporate-government complex,

There are other high officials who should be in jail, but their names cannot be mentioned here because libel suit would follow.

But these men, along with some of their conspirators in the media establishment, should be in jail for sins that are worse than criminal, such as handing over northern Israel to Hezbollah by abandoning southern Lebanon handing over Gaza to Iran’s terrorist front – Hamas – and abandoning innocent Jews whom they encouraged to build their lives in Gaza.

Olmert’s predecessor was Ariel Sharon, who was never indicted but widely suspected of illegal fund raising and political favors. Police said they found evidence of a $3 million bribe paid to Sharon’s sons, and Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke shortly afterwards. One of his sons, Omri was convicted.

Olmert stole from every taxpayer’s pocket – both from the left and the right.

Unlike President Peres, Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett was upbeat over the guilty verdict. “The State of Israel today took a giant step towards a more moral leadership,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “Israel is disconnecting from corruption. A leader is entitled to make a mistake, but he is forbidden to be corrupt. Corruption is exploiting public position for personal profit.”

Rape is an ugly word, an even uglier deed. I don’t use the word lightly or easily. Rape is a crime of violence, not passion; of destruction. The intent is to take the soul, destroy the body. It is an injustice beyond measure, a violation of humanity. No, I’ve never been raped but I know women who have been.

When someone uses the word “holocaust” – even without the capital letter, it bothers me because too often it is thrown around easily and rather than elevate the crime, it diminishes, just a bit, the Holocaust. I think rape is the same way – people use the word so freely, it takes away from when a real rape is inflicted on a person.

And yet…and yet, I’m going to use it here because it is the only word I can think of that applies, and the man ultimately responsible for this rape, this cultural rape – is Barack Hussein Obama – and yes, I’m using his middle name because he felt fine using it in Cairo and other places. And perhaps, just a little, that middle name plays a role in what he is about to do.

The full story, credit for it, comes from and goes to Caroline Glick in her article in the Jerusalem Post, “Our World: A miracle and an Outrage.” The gist of it is – by some miracle, 2,500 years of heritage, of holy books and more survived the devastation and the almost entire complete exile of the Iraqi Jewish community. Saddam Hussein (yeah, there’s that name again), stole over 2,700 Jewish books and writings from the Jewish community. He stored them in some basement to rot and by some miracle, invading US troops found the waterlogged remains.

Amazingly enough, the troops and leaders realized the magnitude of what they had found and the collection was taken to the States, refurbished, renewed, reclaimed at a cost of $3 million dollars. I don’t know how, but I’m willing to raise the money to pay the Americans back for this kindness.

But…here comes the outrage about which Caroline Glick wrote. The American government proudly put their accomplishment on display. Good for them. The exhibition at the National Archives runs through January – that is the scheduled date of the cultural rape about to take place. On or around that time, Obama and the State Department feel it is their responsibility to return the archive to its rightful owners. And I commend them for this decision as much as I condemn them for being too stupid to know who those rightful owners are. No, Mr. President

I believe that the Israeli Ambassador to the United States should request an immediate meeting with the United States President. I believe our Prime Minister must, in no uncertain terms, make it clear that the owners of the archives are the Iraqi Jews – who live primarily in Israel and that to send the archives, these holy books, “back” to Iraq is tantamount to destroying them. Obama might as well blow them up in Washington for all that sending them back to Baghdad will accomplish.

It is hard to believe that caring human beings would not do all in their power to stop a rape they know is about to take place – well, here’s our chance. We know where, we know when – now it is up to each of us to stop it.

Obama – what do you want to stop this travesty? Do you want 3 million dollars? We will raise it. You want a request from the Iraqi Jewish community – I’ll see to it. You want the Israeli government to request it – Bibi, please, do this before it is too late.

Just was what was stolen by the Nazis has long been recognized as belonging to the victims of the Holocaust, the archives belong to the Jews from whom Saddam Hussein stole them. They are not, and never were, the legacy of Iraq – rather, they are the legacy of a small community that was all but hounded into exile, only to re-establish themselves in Israel.

The archives should be donated to the community here in Israel, to a museum they established as a true legacy to what was once a thriving Jewish community. These holy books never belonged to the Iraqi government, Saddam Hussein, or the greater Iraqi people. To deny the rightful owners, to turn these books over to the Iraqis is an abomination, a cultural rape of 2,500 years.

Please help – write to Washington and demand that the archive be given to their rightful owners, the Iraqi JEWISH community, largely represented in Israel and no where else.

Please write to your Congress representatives and ask them to add their voices against this injustice.

Visit A Soldier’s Mother.

Former president Moshe Katzav has requested a retrial from the Supreme Court.

Katzav claims that his conviction was solely based on the testimony of ‘A’, and no other evidence.

Katzav claims that calls made from his car prove he wasn’t with ‘A’ at the times he was supposed to have been raping her.

Katzav has been claiming his innocence since the beginning of the ordeal.

Former President of Israel Moshe Katzav was granted his first 24 hour furlough from Maasiyahu prison on Monday.

Katzav, who claims he is innocent and never committed the crimes he was convicted of, was sentenced to 7 years in jail for two counts of rape of former employees. He has petitioned President Shimon Peres for a pardon, to no avail.

Having served a quarter of his sentence, Katzav is now eligible for 24 hour furloughs every month, which is considered to be part of the rehabilitation process.

Initially, during the furlough he is under house arrest, but he will be allowed to attend shul.

If the furloughs go well, their lengths of time will be extended, and he will no longer be under house arrest during the leaves.

Katzav had one leave, a year and half ago for 8 hours, to go to his son’s wedding.

Mobs protesting the rule of Mohammed Morsi have sexually assaulted nearly 100 women and raped at least 91  in the last four days of protests, Human Rights Watch reported.

Forty-six attacks took  place on Sunday, 17 on Monday and 43 on Tuesday, according to figures attributed to the Egyptian Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment/Assault, which operates a hotline for victims of sexual assault. The Nazra for Feminist Studies women’s rights group  reported that there were five similar attacks on Friday.

“The government response has been to downplay the extent of the problem or to seek to address it through legislative reform alone” Al Jazeera reported”

Several women required surgery after the attacks and some were beaten with metal chains and were stabbed.

Al Jazeera noted, “Sexual harassment has long been common in Egypt, but its increasing occurrence and ferocity has shaken the protest movement. A large number of women had fallen victim to gang assaults too in the square – the epicenter of 2011 revolution.”

An American television journalist was brutally gang raped in the protests against Hosni Mubarak two years ago.

On Sunday evening, a hundred residents of south Tel Aviv, as well as former MK Michael Ben-Ari, demonstrated in Neve Sha’anan’s Levinsky Park, following the stabbing spree carried out by the illegal African infiltrators that have taken over this section of Tel Aviv.

The protesters claimed that the police have abandoned their neighborhoods, and have not done anything to stop the downward slide that has turned this Tel Aviv neighborhood into the most dangerous place in Israel.

Violence, stabbings, rape, and shootings have become commonplace.

During the protest, police kept thousands of African infiltrators as well as the members of Leftwing activist groups that enable and help these illegal infiltrators, away from the protesters, though that didn’t stop both the infiltrators and activists from jeering and taunting the Tel Aviv residents.

Still, it was probably the most police protection these citizens have received in months.

The international community should focus on the true root of conflict in the Middle East, which is the human rights violations occurring in the Muslim world.

Many world leaders appear to falsely believe that if only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were solved, all of the problems that presently exist in the Middle East would magically disappear. For this reason, they focus an enormous amount of energy on trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instead of attempting to halt the democide in Syria; stopping the tyrannical regime in Iran; or pressuring the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood into respecting women’s rights, freedom of speech and minority rights. Yet, even if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were to end tomorrow, all of these problems that cause much conflict would still exist.

DEMOCIDE IN SYRIA

The situation in Syria is deteriorating by the day. Presently, whether 94,000 or 120,000 Syrians have perished, more Syrians have been killed within the last two years than the total number of causalities from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict between 1948 and 2009. Aside from the horrific death toll, Syrian civilians are getting tortured and raped en masse, while entire population centers are getting leveled to the ground. As a result, many Syrians have been forced to flee their homes. Over 1.6 million Syrians are presently refugees, according to the United Nations. Women and children make up three quarters of the Syrian refugee population, likely because the Syrian regime has resorted to rape as a political tool to oppress the Syrian people. No amount of pressure on Israel to withdraw to the 1967 borders will improve the plight of the people of Syria.

MASS REPRESSION IN IRAN

The present reality in Iran is also atrocious. In a country where adulteresses are routinely stoned to death, female political prisoners are as a matter of policy raped before they are executed, believers in the Bahai faith are denied the right to practice their religion, being gay is viewed to be a capital offense, and the present ruling regime seeks to have nuclear power; Iran remains a problematic state, despite the recent election of pragmatic Islamists to power. Peace negotiations between Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu would not convince the Iranian leadership to institute democratic reforms and stop their nuclear program in the absence of international pressure.

THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD DICTATORSHIP IN EGYPT

Under the Muslim Brotherhood’s tutelage, Egypt is slowly creeping in the direction of becoming another Iran. The Arab Spring there is quickly turning into a dark winter. Since the Muslim Brotherhood has come to power, the Egyptian press is being radicalized, while liberal voices within Egypt are being persecuted. Some Egyptian human rights activists claim that there is no difference between the Muslim Brotherhood and Mubarak when it comes to oppressing dissent. Like in Iran, women and minorities are suffering significantly under Islamist rule.

Sexual harassment and rape within Egypt has worsened under the Muslim Brotherhood, with many of the instances of gender based violence originating with the Muslim Brotherhood itself. Some Egyptian women who have attempted to protest against this phenomenon have been gang raped. Meanwhile, the situation for Egypt’s Jewish and Coptic minorities have also significantly worsened. Copts have gotten massacred since Mubarak fell from power, illustrating that Egypt is not a safe place for Christians, unlike Israel, which is the safest place for Christians in the entire Middle East. The few Jews left in Egypt can’t walk in the streets without getting harassed. Elements of Egyptian society are opposed to Egyptian Jews having minority rights. None of this will change should an historic peace agreement be reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

FOCUS ON ISSUES AT HAND

Members of the international community, instead of focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with tunnel vision, should take off their blinders and pay attention to the real issues that are causing conflict in the Middle East. These issues include stopping a nuclear Iran; establishing genuine Middle Eastern democracies that respect minority rights, women’s rights, and freedom of speech; and preventing massive human rights violations from continuing to occur throughout the Muslim Middle East. Solving the Israel- Palestine conflict will not address any of these issues.