Israel Matzav

Government reaches plea bargain with Anat Kam

Israel Radio reports that the government has reached a plea bargain with Anat Kam, the soldier who stole thousands of documents from Yair Naveh, who is currently in line to be vice chairman of Israel's Chiefs of Staff, and to be chairman at least temporarily. Kam turned the documents over to Haaretz reporter Uri Blau, who published articles based on the documents, and then hid out in London for months. The documents were highly sensitive, and involved, among other things, Israel's plans to defend itself in case of war.

Under the terms of the plea bargain, which will be presented to the court on Sunday, Kam would plead guilty to charges relating to the unauthorized retention of government property and documents, and the government will drop the treason charges that are pending against Kam. The government has also apparently agreed not to request more than a nine-year prison sentence with respect to Kam.

North Tel Aviv strikes again. If Kam had been a 'settler' and had stolen documents from a Leftist general, she'd probably be sentenced to life in prison. As I wrote in an earlier post dealing with the possibility of a plea bargain for Kam:

Funny that no one offered 14-year old Chaya or Margalit Har Shefi - both of whom did much less to endanger the country's security - a plea bargain.

But that's just one example of the double standard at work in the Israeli 'justice system.' Here's another one - also from today. Israel Radio reported today (Tuesday) morning that the police are out in force to prevent demonstrators against the 'peace negotiations' from blocking highways in protest. You will recall that two months ago, the police shut down a major highway (the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv highway) at the height of rush hour to allow the Shalit family and their supporters to march in protest of 'government inaction' on Shalit's release.

The longer I live in this country, the more amazed I become at the blatantly unfair manner in which the law is applied here. When it comes to treating people fairly, we are on the level of a banana republic. The law is often selectively enforced.

It's happened again.

Labels: Anat Kam, IDF war preparations, treason, Yair Naveh

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:17 PM