The Knuckleheads of the Day award

Today's winners are former President of Israel Moshe Katsav and the country's Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz. They get the award for the following.

JERUSALEM, June 29 — Israel’s disgraced president, Moshe Katsav, submitted his resignation to Parliament on Friday morning amid fierce public criticism over the deal by which rape charges against him were dropped in exchange for an admission of guilt for lesser offenses.

Mr. Katsav’s resignation will take effect on Monday, when he will be charged with committing an indecent act without consent, sexual harassing two women and harassing a witness, the attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, said Thursday. Mr. Katsav will serve no jail time.

The deal and Mr. Mazuz came under harsh attack. Yediot Aharonot, the largest newspaper in the country, headlined the arrangement “A Deal of Shame” on the front page. Mordechai Kremnitzer of Hebrew University, one of Israel’s pre-eminent legal scholars, told Israel Radio that Mr. Mazuz had “sinned” and had “damaged the principle of equality before the law.”

Ordinarily, just one offense of indecent assault would warrant seven years in prison, according to Emmanuel Gross, a law professor at Haifa University, and in this case probably more, because the charge is aggravated by an abuse of power. But Mr. Katsav will receive a one-year suspended sentence and pay less than $12,000 in compensation to the two women.

Mr. Katsav had taken a leave of absence from his presidential duties, which are largely ceremonial, in January, because of the investigation. His seven-year presidential term was to end July 14.

This is disgraceful. A politician charged with rape and he gets off with a suspended sentence. Katsav assaulted women and Mazuz did an assault on the law and the trust Israeli citizens' have in their elected officials. Former President of Israel Moshe Katsav and Israel's Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz are today's Knuckleheads of the Day.

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