RUTHFULLY YOURS

Sexual abuse of women, in one form or another, appears to be on the rise in Israel. As is always the case with crimes of this nature, it is difficult to tell whether the phenomenon is actually increasing, or whether it is being taken more seriously than before and therefore has gained more attention.

Indeed, the local news yesterday was so rape-heavy that one might have missed all the commentary on the national unity government that was formed the other day between the Likud and Kadima parties, a move which has rocked the political system and topped the water-cooler conversation from Metullah to Eilat.

The most sensational of the items involved the mayor of the town of Kiryat Malachi, home of former Israeli president and current prison inmate Moshe Katsav, himself serving a seven-year sentence for rape. Mayor Motti Malka was arrested for “raping, harassing, and abusing” a municipal employee with whom he had allegedly had an affair. Other city honchos, including Malka’s own son, were also accused of taking part in, or of having been fully aware of, the sleazy goings-on at city hall. And other women came forward to claim that similar crimes had been committed against them over the years.

Rather than taking his cue from Katsav, who claimed he had never even had sex with any of the plaintiffs in his case, Malka admitted outright to having had “consensual” sex. This won’t necessarily let him off the hook, however, as the use of city property and clout for such purposes is not exactly legal either. It certainly isn’t ethical.

The second scandalous story was about the 18-year prison sentence handed down by the Tel Aviv District Court to Rami Saban, deemed by police to be the “biggest pimp in Israel.”

Saban was convicted of operating a global trafficking network, soliciting women from all over the world as prostitutes, and imprisoning them in Israel, where they were put to work for him and his accomplices, who also received stiff sentences.

The third sex-crime blotter piece was about the indictment of Mohammed Fadoul, a 24-year-old Sudanese refugee, accused of raping a high school girl from Jerusalem. Fadoul has been employed by the owner of a villa outside of Beit Shemesh, used as a banquet hall. According to the indictment, Fadoul raped an inebriated 17-year-old who was attending a graduation party on the premises. Fadoul claimed that the girl climbed into bed with him, thereby initiating the contact.

At the end of such a broadcast, all one feels like doing is taking a long shower.

This is among the many reasons that Israelis walk around commiserating about how bad things have gotten from a social perspective. “Everything is unraveling,” is what a close friend of mine recently moaned. “What has happened to us? How have we turned into such bad people?”

This is my answer to her.

In the first place, “bad people” exist everywhere, including in Israel. And the only places in the world where it is particularly low are those countries (and neighborhoods) in which a reign of terror, whether governmental or mob-related, makes criminals too frightened to have body parts removed, or to be imprisoned, executed, or merely tarred and feathered, no questions asked. No lawyers present. So, let’s be thankful that Israel is not one of those places.

Second of all, the question is not whether a society has many or few “bad people,” but rather how that society deals with them when they are caught violating the law. Israel not only has a very active and involved legal system, but a completely open and free press. The latter is what enables us to see exactly which “bad people” are committing which crimes and when. Furthermore, because of the Internet, footage of any and all ill deeds get posted on the web practically before the police have a chance to arrive at a given scene.

Where sex crimes are concerned, if there are no cameras around, or when victims or witnesses are fearful or shy about complaining to the authorities, there are always some nice female journalists waiting in the wings to serve as their mouthpieces. Moreover, Israel’s sexual harassment laws happen to be among the world’s most advanced and vigilant.

However, while these arguments may provide a response to my self-flagellating friend about Israeli society, it does not address the more specific issue of the increase in violent sexual behavior against women in such a liberal country.

Theories abound, such as the classical left-wing notion that “occupation” is the great corrupter of all values and human behavior. (Ho-hum, how many more times do we have to be fed that stale baloney sandwich before vomiting?)

Personally, I attribute it to the loss of all previously held distinctions that created the kind of boundaries human beings need and crave. The distinction between “maleness” and “femaleness” is now frowned upon. Men are no longer automatically bread-winners, and women child-rearers. Boys today are not taught to pay for a date or to escort her home (unless it’s for “casual, consensual” sex after going Dutch). Girls are not told that they are precious and should consider themselves as such. They are just like the boys, and therefore do not have to concern themselves with how provocatively they dress, or with the level of respect they should expect and demand from the opposite sex.

Meanwhile, as irony would have it, they are simultaneously instructed in the ins and outs of the sexual harassment laws. They are told that anything and everything constitutes rape, including (I kid you not) if a husband makes his wife feel guilty about withholding sex she doesn’t feel like having on a given day but lets him go ahead anyway.

Rape is a real thing. Victims of rape spend their whole lives having to overcome the terror, violence, and trauma that accompany it. Using that word to describe a date gone awry is as despicable as it is misleading.

When the absence of the rules of courtship hooks up with the abundance of laws governing sexuality, the ensuing explosion is as ugly as it is inevitable.

Ruthie Blum, a former senior editor at The Jerusalem Post, is the author of “Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring,’” to be released by RVP Press in the summer.