Truth and justice have been upheld by two verdicts now. The implementation of these verdicts begins Wednesday, as former President Moshe Katsav begins serving his jail sentence. During his last day of freedom Katsav told the New York Times that he regrets nothing. Without any humility, without lowering his head, without giving it a second thought, he repeats his mantra. He is challenging the rule of law in a way that many convicted felons do, and he should not be penalized for this. But his current stance of vehemently maintaining his innocence prevents him from undergoing psychological treatment, without which his sentence cannot be commuted. This is his right. His problem. Just as long as he is aware of that. From this point forward we should all leave him alone. He is not a president. He deserves no special treatment, nor does he deserve particularly hostile attention. He was punished not only for the actual crimes he committed, he also attracted the public's rage with his crude attempt to vilify the women who testified against him. Get the Israel Hayom newsletter sent to your mailbox! On the other hand, the amount of hatred directed at him was also unusual. It was uncomfortable to witness the public display of joy and contempt in Justice George Kara's courtroom during the reading of the guilty verdict. For Jews, these images evoke bad memories of trials in Europe. The charges themselves have been discussed to death, but we should re-examine the events that occurred since Katsav launched the process that ended with him going to jail. Where did he get the bad energy to file complaints against his victims with the attorney-general, knowing that his claims were false? How was he not deterred by the possibility that these women, whom he had already victimized, would be subject to a second attack by the law? He never hesitated, never stopped, never doubted himself -- he just went with it. The Israel Prison Service announced Tuesday that Katsav would be placed on a round-the-clock suicide watch. They're just covering their own tails. The likelihood that such a determined man, so impervious to criticism, will take his own life is no greater than the likelihood that any other upper-class, white-collar criminal will do so. But in this case, the commissioner does not want to take any chances. He is wrong, but the responsibility is his, and its his decision to make. Regardless, the sordid affair is coming to a close. Politicians who have stirred up the courts in an inexplicable and threatening way tried to place obstacles along the entire path to justice, and they continue to do so even now. Their crazy ideas have been rejected outright, but who can guarantee that they won't resurface and make more headway next time- Efforts to diminish the authority of Israel's court system and to grant special treatment to self-proclaimed "exalted ones," have made great strides since Aryeh Deri's trial in the 1990s. This is cause for concern, not because of the identity of the new prisoner, but rather for fear of what will happen when the next "esteemed" politician arrives at the prison gates. And what about Katsav himself? He deserves to be left alone. We, too, deserve that he leave us alone.
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