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JERUSALEM — Israel's Justice Ministry says former President Moshe Katsav is to be charged with raping a woman who once worked for him. The ministry says Attorney General Meni Mazuz has decided to indict Katsav, who wants to go to trial to clear his name. Last year Katsav called off a plea bargain that would have required him to admit to lesser charges of sexual misconduct but avoid up to 20 years in jail.

JERUSALEM - Israeli President Moshe Katsav agreed to resign Thursday in a plea bargain that drops rape allegations and the threat of jail time in return for pleading guilty to lesser charges. The deal was a dramatic reversal by Attorney General Meni Mazuz, who had announced in January that he planned to take Katsav to trial on charges of rape and other sex crimes — counts that could have landed him in prison for 20 years. Katsav's accusers, all former female employees, condemned the deal, which will impose no jail time for his guilty pleas to sexual harassment and obstruction...

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz decided Thursday that President Moshe Katsav should face charges for alleged rape and other incidents of sexual assault. Katsav has been accused of raping a former employee of the President's Residence, known only as "A"." Mazuz' recommendation was expected some six weeks ago, but was delayed after District Attorney Eli Abarbanel said there was not enough evidence to press charges in at least some of the 14 cases against the president.....

Putin quip on Israeli president sex scandal caught on mics Wed Oct 18, 8:57 PM ET MOSCOW (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin's quip on the sex scandal surrounding his Israeli counterpart almost stole the show from his talks with visiting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert which focused on Iran. Putin, who was speaking seconds after the two leaders made statements at the opening of their meeting at the Kremlin, was caught on reporters' microphones telling Olmert "say hello to your president -- he really surprised us." Israeli police announced on Sunday that evidence gathered during a weeks-long investigation was enough to...

JERUSALEM — Police raided the official residence of Israeli President Moshe Katsav as part of a sexual harassment investigation, seizing computers and documents, officials said Tuesday. ... At least two women have accused Katsav of harassing them. He has denied wrongdoing.

Israel’s president refuses to refer to leading US Reform Rabbi Eric Yoffe as ‘rabbi’ because according to his upbringing, only an Orthodox rabbi qualifies as such. Yoffe: President’s conduct just a symptom of sad state of relationship between Israel and Reform Judaism Rabbi Eric Yoffe, President of the Union of Reform Judaism (Reform Rabbinical Association) in the United States and considered one of the most important rabbis in the Jewish world, arrived in Israel this week to participate in the World Jewish Congress. The Reform community headed by Rabbi Yoffe comprises roughly 920 communities throughout the United States, and includes...

Apr. 2, 2006 3:02 | Updated Apr. 2, 2006 9:10 President Katsav to kick off coalition talks By GIL HOFFMAN AND JPOST STAFF President Moshe Katsav will begin holding consultations with party representatives on Sunday ahead of his decision this week on whom he should ask to form Israel's next government. The consultations will kick off at noon when Kadima representatives Haim Ramon, Avraham Hirchson, Roni Bar-On, Dalia Itzik, Avigdor Yitzhaki and Marina Solodkin visit Beit Hanassi. They will be followed by MKs from Labor, Shas, Israel Beiteinu and the Likud. Katsav will meet Monday with representatives from the National...

Katsav: Talks with Hamas possible President Moshe Katsav says negotiations with PA on peace settlement can materialize if Hamas renounces terror, recognizes Israel. Meanwhile rightist MK calls on government to eliminate Hamas' leadership Ynet President Moshe Katsav said Thursday that if Hamas aims for peace, renounces terror and recognizes Israel's right to exist, Israel and the Palestinians would be able to move toward a settlement. Perspectives Arab MK: Only Hamas can make peace / Ilan Marciano Arab MK says just as Sharon was only one capable of making peace with Palestinians, Hamas only group able to make peace with Israel....

Jerusalem -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will quit his ruling Likud party to run separately in national elections and will ask Israel’s president to dissolve parliament for a snap poll, a source in Sharon’s office said on Sunday. Sharon is to visit President Moshe Katsav on Monday and ask him to dissolve the Knesset, said Shariv, the media advisor in Sharon’s office, adding this would set off a process that would lead to elections in 60 days, unless a Knesset (parliament) member succeeds in forming a new coalition within the next three weeks. Israel began moving toward early elections after...

Israeli President Moshe Katsav is making the first official visit of any Israeli head of state to the Vatican. The Israelis have hailed the occasion as one of great symbolic importance, as relations between the two states have often been fraught over the decades. The Israelis have called Pope Benedict XVI a "true friend of Israel". President Katsav has invited him to follow in the footsteps of the late John Paul II by going to Israel on a state visit. For many, at first suspicious of the new Pope, he started well. In the first days of his pontificate...

Israeli President Moshe Katsav has accepted an invitation from Pope Benedict XVI to make the first official visit to the Vatican by an Israeli head of state, officials said Sunday.Katsav will visit Italy for about a week in mid-November, said Katsav's spokeswoman, Hagit Cohen. The Foreign Ministry said the visit was "unprecedented."Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations in the 1990s, and Pope John Paul II hosted Israeli prime ministers and other officials as part of his effort to build ties with the Jewish state.The presidency in Israel is a largely ceremonial office, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said...

Khatami "highly lunatic" any meeting with the Israeli president TEHERAN - Iranian president Mohammad Khatami "highly contradicted" information of the Israeli media according to which it had tightened the hand and had briefly spoken to the Israeli president in the Vatican at the time of the funeral of Jean Paul II, Saturday paid the official agency Irna. "These allegations are false like all the allegations (Israeli media) and I did not have any meeting with a personality of the mode Zionist", declared Mr. Khatami on his return in Teheran. The Israeli media affirmed Friday that at the end of...

BUDAPEST - Hungarian police said Tuesday afternoon they had detained a Hungarian citizen of Palestinian origin who had planned to blow up a Jewish museum in Budapest and two Syrian men also suspected of links to the plot. Police also said there was no connection between the arrests and the current visit to Budapest by President Moshe Katsav, who is set to inaugurate the Holocaust Memorial Center in Budapest on Thursday to mark the 60th anniversary of the day Hungary's pro-Nazi regime started rounding up Jews to confine them in ghettos. Police Lt. Col. Attila Petofi, deputy director of the...

BUDAPEST : Hungarian authorities foiled an assassination attempt against visiting Israeli President Moshe Katsav. Three people of Arab origin had been arrested in connection with the bomb plot, local radio station Inforadio reported on Tuesday, quoting intelligence sources. Hungarian police had learned of a planned terror attack during Katzav's visit, national police spokesman Lajos Nemeth told AFP but would not confirm or deny that the Israeli head of state was the target. "Police in Budapest took measures based on the suspicion of a terrorist attack," Nemeth said. "House searches, interrogations, detentions are under way." There was no official confirmation,...

The Israeli president invites his Syrian counterpart in Jerusalem Israeli president Moshé Katsav invited Monday his Syrian counterpart Bachar Al-Assad to come to Jerusalem to negotiate the conditions of an agreement of peace with Israel. "I invite president Assad to come to Jerusalem and to seriously negotiate with the Israeli leaders the conditions of an agreement of peace", affirmed Mr. Katsav with the Israeli public radio. "Mr. Assad will be welcome, but it should not pose prerequisites", it added. Previously, the Israeli president had shown Syria to have supported the transfer of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah Lebanese Shiite. Israel...

Sep. 8, 2003 Being a Jew, by Moshe Katsav The late Daniel Pearl of blessed memory, by stating "I am a Jew" to his terrorist captors before being murdered, proclaimed his affiliation to a religious and national entity, and his being part of Jewish history. This declaration encompasses a way of life, beliefs and views. To be a Jew means having an outlook on worldwide issues that is founded on Jewish principles based on the Bible. To be a Jew means to belong to a faith, which gave humanity the belief in one God and universal values, which have accompanied...

Kairat Abdrakhmanov, the new ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan, presented his credentials on Thursday to President Moshe Katsav. Given that of all the Muslim countries with which Israel has diplomatic ties, Kazakhstan is arguably the most friendly, and her President Nursultan Nazarbayev the most well disposed towards Israel, the year-long delay in appointing a successor to previous ambassador Byrganym Aitimova seems irregular. Abdrakhmanov, however, said that it was simply diplomatic procedure. Abdrakhmanov joined his country's Foreign Ministry 10 years ago, and this is his second posting abroad and his first in the capacity of ambassador. He was previously minister-councilor...