The door has yet to close on remorse
The criminal proceedings against former President Moshe Katsav have reached their final destination; this is it. The 64-months-long judicial process had the convicted felon constantly struggling with two conflicting realms. On one hand, there was the truth and the attempts to get to the bottom of the case; on the other, his personal pride and hubris. Katsav's seven lean years -- his prison term, which begins next month -- can be traced to his choice of trying to have his honor trump the facts.
Israel's eighth president saw a spate of traumatic letdowns, in a legal sense. First there was his denial of the fact hat he had turned from an accuser (of his employee for alleged blackmail) to being accused (of sexual misconduct). Then there was the desperate, almost delirious, attempt by his defense team to have the conviction on the count of rape overturned, saying during the appeal hearings that Katsav and his employee had been involved in an affair -- a twist that made this saga even more surreal as Katsav's attorneys hinted at the existence of such an affair without their client's consent.
With the exception of several public outbursts, the former president subscribed to a demeanor befitting the Hebrew song, "A man lives unto himself," harboring the false hope that if he turned his gaze away from the facts and refused to confront his actions the whole affair would just disappear into thin air. But this did not happen.
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Had he come to terms with the gravity of his actions, he would have asked, "Where do I sign-" when the prosecution approached him with a very comfortable plea bargain. And we would have been served well had he not appealed his verdict. What good came out of it? By going to the Supreme Court he has in effect transformed the Tel Aviv District Court's three-judge ruling into a more damning six-judge ruling.
After the final verdict was issued, Katsav's attorney, Avigdor Feldman, tried to sift through the legal rubble of his case by discrediting the judges, and raised questions as to why they sided with the rape victim's version of events, and not that of his client. However, he might have forgotten that the overall impression a witness makes on a judge is one of the underpinnings of any criminal proceeding.
Katsav has taken the view that everyone wants to see his demise and is gleefully awaiting the day he is thrown into jail and humiliated. While there is some truth to this, there are many who have felt sorry for him over his fall from grace and the ordeal the public has had to endure because of it. If he does not let go of the war he has been waging inside his head to prove his innocence and if he fails to let go of the hostility for people outside prison walls, he is in for a hellish time in jail.
Instead, he must turn positive now, first and foremost towards his family and himself. Grouching and complaining should give way to a new posture, one that allows him to come to terms with the facts, even if that means losing some face; it would also allow him to realize that he has sinned and erred when he hurt women. His path toward genuine remorse will open up once he fully accepts this and conveys it to himself and his surroundings, letting the facts prevail over his pride.
In Judaism it is never too late to mend your ways, even on your death bed. If he embarks on a path that leads him to contrition and makes him embrace therapy he would fare well and feel that a burden had been lifted. This would ultimately allow his sentence to be shortened too.
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