Justice minister brought down by 'stolen kiss'

[milmor_1]

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independe...issue_id=14531

Justice minister brought down by 'stolen kiss'

THE Israeli Justice Minister will resign tomorrow over allegations that he forcibly kissed a teenage woman soldier during a farewell party at government offices in Tel Aviv on the day that the Lebanese war erupted.

Haim Ramon said he would fight his indictment for sexual harassment. "A kiss of two, three seconds, based on the version of the complainant, cannot be turned into a criminal act. I am certain of my innocence, and I will prove it in court," he said in a statement.

But the impending resignation of a minister seen as a close ally of Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, has added to a sense of crisis. The government was already on the defensive as other scandals emerged amid growing public anger over mismanagement of the war against Hizbollah, which achieved none of its key aims.

Mr Olmert, whose Kadima-led Government was elected on March 28, conceded yesterday that his central electoral plank of unilaterally withdrawing from parts of the West Bank had been shelved because of the upsurge of violence in Gaza and the conflict in Lebanon. The feeling of drift and a rising chorus of criticism by reservist soldiers returning from the Lebanese front led analysts to predict that the government's days could be numbered. Mr Ramon's intention to resign came after the furore surrounding the army chief's sale of €22,000 stock just three hours after the Lebanese conflict broke. That, in turn, eclipsed even the criminal indictment of another leading Kadima party member.

Menachem Mazuz, the attorney-general, revealed that Tzahi Hanegbi was to be indicted on charges of fraud, election bribery and lying under oath related to his making of 80 political appointments while he was environment minister in the Likud government between 2001 and 2003.

[Woodmonkey]

I thought it would be bad, but not this bad.