To the Editor:
On the conviction of ex-Israeli president Moshe Katsav for rape, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared a thoughtful comment for a change.
"This is a sad day for the State of Israel and its residents,” Netanyahu said in a statement following the verdict. "Today the court conveyed two clear-cut messages — that all are equal before the law and that every woman has exclusive rights to her body."
Indeed, it is the rule of law that needs to be admired about the State of Israel. However, I will go back to our own U.S. history when the founding fathers declared that “All men are created equal.” But the nation’s emancipation took a century to treat “African Americans equal” and about 150 years to recognize that “women are equal members of the society.” Finally, the civil rights acts legally gave the full meaning to the idea of “all men are equal.”
The State of Israel is where America was two centuries ago. Netanyahu’s words “that all are equal" are without any depth. The few right-wingers that run the state are getting away with its apartheid policies toward Palestinians against the Jewish public wishes. A Martin Luther King Jr. is needed in Israel to bring fruition to the universal idea of “all are equal before the law.” It will lift a huge spiritual burden off the conscience of the ordinary Israelis and the Jewish people around the world.
Mike Ghouse
Dallas, Texas
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
