Israeli Minister Silvan Shalom: The Timing of an Affair

ראש החודש הראשון תשע"ד

YNET: Silvan Shalom affair: Who's harassing who?
Op-ed: When an alleged sex offense from 15 years ago pops up just as a veteran minister is about to run for president, it stinks.

Sima Kadmon, March 25, 2014

...And as for the attorney general, sometimes it seems that he has yet to decide who he is – a dawdling turtle or a lion rushing to swoop down on his prey. We would expect him, like we expect a good doctor, to make the right diagnosis and not act as though he was watching his own back. I think that in this case he could have told the complainant, gently, that the time that has passed and the timing she chose compel him to reject her complaint.

And as for the police investigation, come on. Has everything requiring investigation in this country already been investigated? Have all the criminals been punished? Is this what the police should be dealing with – a complainant who remembered to complain 15 years later at such a sensitive timing?

And in any event, it's becoming clear that the presidential race is getting more and more dirty. If we thought that this role was, how should I put it, a bit boring, we should probably consider it again. If this is what happened even before Shalom announced his candidacy, we are in for two heated months.

Esser Agaroth (2¢):

Silvan Shalom
(Likud)

Kadmon makes some good points. Right or wrong, innocent or guilty, the timing was uncanny.

Now, what I would like to know is who encouraged the alleged  victim of sexual harassment to come forward now,...leading up to Israel's expected presidential election?

And now two more women came forward to add their sexual harassment complaints to this one.

Moshe Katzav
(Likud)

"They" went after former President Moshe Katzav with sexual harassment claims and worse, indictments, trials, convictions, and imprisonment, only after the fact, and more likely than not, when he upset the wrong person of power, or the wrong person of power began to feel too threatened by him.

What I would also like to know is what about those guilty politicians who have not been caught? More importantly, what about the guilty politicians who have been caught, but who have not been reported,...yet?

Like Kadmon suggests, I sincerely doubt that we have heard the last piece of nastiness directed toward one prospective presidential candidate or another, or directed toward someone who has simply gotten in someone else's way.