Iakov Levi

 

From the Invasion of Lebanon to the Charges of Rape

( Dramma giocoso[1] in Two Acts)

 

   21/10/2006

 

The voice of Yahweh breaks the cedars. Yes, Yahweh breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
 
He makes them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young, wild ox
. (Psalms 29:5-7 )

 

ACT  I:   The Cease - Fire and the Hasty Retreat of Israel

 

ACT  II
 

The Rapist and the Violated Woman

 

Persons represented:
 

Moshe Katzav, President of the State of Israel……………..The Delegate of the People

Menachem Mazuz, Attorney General………………………The Super – Ego

The Violated Woman (known as A)………………………..Lebanon

The Police…………………………………………………The Castrating Father

The Press………………………………………………….The Chorus

 

As we know from the press, the President of the State of Israel Moshe Katzav is close to be charged with rape and sexual harassment by the police:
 

Last update - 04:31 20/09/2006

Police: Enough evidence found to indict Katsav on sex charges

By Yuval Yoaz and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondents

The team investigating President Moshe Katsav for alleged rape and other charges presented its intermim findings to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Tuesday.
Investigators believe the material collected so far contains enough evidence for at least three charges in the affair […]
Most of the investigation, which started about two months ago, has been completed, and sources close to the investigation said the probe could end within a few weeks after which a decision could be made on an indictment. Contrary to rumors over the past few days, it was not decided in the meeting to hold a confrontation between the former staff member known as A. who claimed Katsav raped her, and the president.
( http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/764451.html )

There is no doubt in my mind that if the police of the State of Israel is going to charge the President with rape, he indeed did it.

However, in psychohistory as in psychoanalysis, not the facts are important, but their psychological interpretation, namely, the latent meaning, and therefore their real meaning, which the collective unconscious attributes to them. The manifest level is only the façade. The latent level is the engine of the acting out.

President Katzav has some serious psychological problem, and it seems that he is unable to restrain himself, just like a kleptomaniac who cannot refrain from stealing in a supermarket, even if he has no material need to do so. However, there is nothing new. It seems that his psychological problem was well known by the ones who elected him, even before he was raised to the present sublime office. There have been rumors for many years that he used to harass his female workers.

Therefore, the real issue is: “Why all the fuss NOW?”.

Furthermore, he is suspected not only of female harassing but also of irregularities in granting clemencies, and illegal wiretapping. The last accuses are much more relevant to the public interest than the former. However, it seems that the all action focuses on the sexual aspect: violence, even rape, has been perpetrated on the female body. Who therefore is this violated female body, in which the collectivity has such a strong vested interest?

Surveying the web I found that the case of sexual harassment against Katzav is continuously associated with the war in Lebanon. Here some instances:

One woman, a former senior employee, has testified to being coerced into
sex with the president after he hinted she would otherwise lose her job.
She was reported to have passed a lie-detector test.

The case allegedly came to light when a woman tried to blackmail Katsav
for money and a job, threatening to file sexual harassment charges, at
which point the president alerted Attorney General Menachem Mazuz.

Mazuz ordered a preliminary investigation into harassment charges on
July 12, the same day that Israel's offensive against the Shiite militia
Hezbollah was launched
.
 ( http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.christian.east-orthodox/browse_thread/thread/b4e5d531e2543550/541c024942ed6c3e%23541c024942ed6c3e )
 

 The Katsav case is the latest blow to hit Israel's leadership, with prime
minister Ehud Olmert's government steering its way through public anger over
failings of its 34-day war against Hezbollah in Lebanon
(http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.bangladesh/browse_thread/thread/2084a53325c04848/dc71463246d452c4%23dc71463246d452c4 )

 
On Sunday, police told Attorney General Menachem Mazuz there was enough evidence to indict Katsav over charges of rape, sexual harassment and wire-tapping.
The police investigation, initially overshadowed by Israel's war in Lebanon, has brought Katsav's otherwise solid public career into disrepute as he fends off increasing calls for his resignation
. (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=123&art_id=iol1160947112519B226 )

In the Bible, cities are called “Daughters”, and Freud confirms that landscapes, cities, and fortresses are symbols for woman [2]. To conquer a city or a country is psychologically equivalent to conquer a woman. (Cf. Country).

 Furthermore, as reported by the New York Times, the disgust with Katzav alleged deeds was mixed with some sort of pervert admiration:

 According to published accounts by Agence France-Presse late Wednesday and Kommersant and The Jerusalem Post today, Mr. Putin was heard saying, “Say hello to your president,” to Mr. Olmert, referring to President Moshe Katsav, who could face criminal charges that he raped and assaulted two former employees. Mr. Putin added, “He really surprised us.” The microphone was quickly turned off as reporters were ushered from the room, but the news organizations reported that Mr. Putin went on.

“We did not know he could deal with 10 women,” he said, according to the Post and Agence France-Presse accounts, apparently referring to the complaints by several women that Mr. Katsav harassed them or worse.

Kommersant’s version — citing the remarks in Russian — was cruder. “He turned out to be quite a powerful man,” the paper’s reporter in the official Kremlin pool, Andrei Kolesnikov, quoted Mr. Putin as saying. “He raped 10 women. I never expected it from him. He surprised all of us. We all envy him.”  (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/19/world/europe/19cnd-putin.html?hp&ex=1161316800&en=511545f100ad49e3&ei=5094&partner=homepage )

 
Apparently, namely at the manifest level, it is some sort of a joke. However, why should a head of state like Putin indulge in such an idiotic joke, had it not been because of the perceived latent relevance to state affairs? As Freud has shown, jokes are never innocent expressions, and are always highly charged with meaning.

President Katzav is the image of the State of Israel. A joke on him is a joke on the people whom he represents. Therefore, the  quite a powerful man who raped 10 women are Israel and her people. Since Putin could not possibly refer to a real rape perpetrated by the people of Israel on a real woman, we understand that he was speaking of the war of Lebanon, which is the real issue on the mind of politicians and presidents. The violated woman is A, namely Lebanon herself.

Putin, who is quite a rough politician is delighted at the thought of raping countries. He said to Olmert and to the world – through a not by accident turned on and activated microphone – “You see, we the Russians are not the only ones who violate countries – such as Chechnya – you the Israelis are ‘more powerful’, you raped ten times more” [3].

As I sustained in The Disproportionate Reaction of Israel , the Jews represent to the West a Father imago. As such they are perceived with an enormous penis - lust. So Putin, referring to the powerfulness of the president of the State of Israel is unconsciously saying that when he - Putin rapes peoples and countries he is imitating the powerful Father. Therefore he should be admired and not scolded, as he actually is because of his poor record on human and civil rights isuues.  

This is the real issue which is debated on the public stage, as if it were a question of the President of the State of Israel raping women.

The Israeli public, which in its own eyes represents a filial instance (as anybody else feels about himself), and not a paternal image as they are perceived by the Gentiles, is consumed by an unrestrained sense of guilt for having raped Lebanon (so the guilt - ridden Israelis perceive it), and now demands self punishment and humiliation through its representative. In ancient times kings were elected in order to be sacrificed as scapegoats for the group’s sins. They were and they are the poison containers of the group.

…So justice shall be done

                                                                                                                               Exeunt

 

.



[1] Not by accident, like Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

[2] “Symbolism in Dreams”, in “Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis”, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, The Hogarth Press, London 1963, vol. 15, pp. 162-3.

[3] Putin's remarks are always very attentively directed and are never "slips of the tongue" or gaffes. When he says to Bush: "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy that they have in Iraq, quite honestly.", everybody laughs, because it seems a joke. However, the intention is to deflect criticism from himself back towards the accuser. When he says: that Italy was "the cradle of the mafia" and that "a lot of Spanish mayors were in jail for corruption.", it is obvious that he is fighting back using the same terms that were used against himself. It is not a "gaffe".
So, it is the same when he apparently "jokes" on President Katzav raping women.



P.S. More on Guilt (Nov.1, 2006)


Here I found an interesting comment by George Soros:

THE FAILURE OF Israel to subdue Hezbollah demonstrates the many weaknesses of the war-on-terror concept. One of those weaknesses is that even if the targets are terrorists, the victims are often innocent civilians, and their suffering reinforces the terrorist cause.
In response to Hezbollah's attacks, Israel was justified in attacking Hezbollah to protect itself against the threat of missiles on its border. However, Israel should have taken greater care to minimize collateral damage. The civilian casualties and material damage inflicted on Lebanon inflamed Muslims and world opinion against Israel and converted Hezbollah from aggressors to heroes of resistance for many. Weakening Lebanon has also made it more difficult to rein in Hezbollah.
Another weakness of the war-on-terror concept is that it relies on military action and rules out political approaches. Israel previously withdrew from Lebanon and then from Gaza unilaterally, rather than negotiating political settlements with the Lebanese government and the Palestinian authority. The strengthening of Hezbollah and Hamas was a direct consequence of that approach. The war-on-terror concept stands in the way of recognizing this fact because it separates "us" from "them" and denies that our actions help shape their behavior...
. ( Blinded by a concept By George Soros | August 31, 2006

George Soros for sure is not an anti - Semite, being a warm hearted Jew himself, very attentive and well intentioned towards the future and welfare of Israel. A honourable man, as Mark Anthony says of Brutus. Moreover, he is not alone in criticizing Israel. Self -criticism must be welcome, indicating a humanitarian, progressive and self conscious society.

However, is it only justified self criticism, or is it a symptom of a deeper malaise? It seems that the Jews themselves, Israelis and not, are the main protagonists of the Chorus of the Goats, musically commenting the destiny of the tragic hero while he is progressively led, step after step, toward the altar on which he will be finally sacrificed. By his own fault, of course (what else?!)

What impressed me most is the a priori assumption, in this article as in many other articles infesting the Israeli press, that what our enemy does is always a direct consequence of what we (the Israelis) do. A reaction to our misbehavior.
There is never the slightest hint that what Israel does might well have no impact at all on the final acting out by the Arabs, simply because they are engulfed in their own mental labyrinth and compulsion to repeat. Nobody never assumes that they commit suicide because that is their need.
The a priori assumption is always that the Arabs respond to Israeli behaviour, and not to their own compulsory needs.
Therefore, if there is no peace it must be because Israel did not manage the crisis - this one as the previous ones - properly.
Israel is always the one to blame, because it does not manage properly the situation.
Well, that is exactly the way, and the only way, in which a little child is able to make an interpretation of what is inflicted on him by the outer world.
The Humus which feeds such an interpretation is the child natural narcissism and his endogenous sense of guilt. If its rains, if he is abused, if his parents die or are ill, if exile, pest and fire befall on him, it must be because he acted badly. The only key the little child has is to search into his own impulses and instinctual needs. If it thunders, it is not because of a meteorological configuration, dependent on the outside world and independent of himself, but because God (the Father) is angry, and that because of his erections.



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