The Israel Defense Forces is the organization most vulnerable to the phenomenon of sexual harassment. Not just because of its size and scope, but mainly because of the dramatic encounter between young women leaving home for the first time and older commanders who spend long days away from home. Women's rights organizations have been active on the issue for years, and the IDF has made efforts to drastically change the reality in the military. Not only in terms of crime prevention, which is at the heart of the struggle, but also in terms of psychology and prohibiting relationships that were seen in the past as legitimate -- as well, of course, as those that never were considered as such. In recent years, this new reality made its way into the public consciousness, and in the year since Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot has been chief of staff, it has become even more prominent. He did not initiate the efforts to raise awareness, but he added to them considerably. Success requires an effective procedure to deal with these incidents, and not just in principle -- recent events surrounding Brig. Gen. Ofek Buchris (who is suspected of five counts of rape, sodomy, sexual assault, indecent acts, and abuse of authority) prove this. It is not enough that justice be done, it must also be seen. That does not mean that Buchris (or anyone else who has had a complaint filed against them) is automatically guilty. As the public knows, complaints of this nature have been used in the past for revenge, or have later been found out to have been grossly exaggerated. This all creates a need for investigations that are fair and cautious, avoiding sticking to one version of the story or another -- especially when the two contradicting sides each have several supporters. On Wednesday, Complainant B, who Buchris said is good friends with Complainant A, joined the charge against him, while some of his other female soldiers defended him. On Wednesday night, it seemed that things were getting worse for him, but those who know these cases know that the path to the finish line is a long one. For now, it seems that the right thing to do is to let the Military Police seek out soldiers/witnesses, if there are any. In the last little while, there have been several public cases of sexual harassment. Both within the IDF and in the civilian world. There has also been a new norm created of punishment without trial, for better or worse. Regardless, for some reason that begs an explanation, the Buchris incident is different in some way, even if we can't yet explain why. Whether he committed the crime or not, whether the circumstances described are a bitter truth or a trial balloon, they include the raw materials for a great literary work, regardless of how the trial unfolds for the Buchris home and the family of an anonymous soldier.
