Israeli president steps aside temporarily but rejects calls for resignation

JERUSALEM -- Moshe Katsav temporarily relinquished his powers as Israel's president Thursday, but defied demands from officials to quit outright and spare the nation more anguish over rape and sexual assault allegations leveled against him.

The accusations have sent shock waves even in a country accustomed to seeing its leaders embroiled in scandal.

A parliamentary committee on Thursday narrowly approved Katsav's request for a leave of absence of up to three months. Dozens of lawmakers, meanwhile, pressed ahead with a move to oust him.

The difference between suspension and outright removal from office is that as long as Katsav is even technically president, he enjoys immunity from prosecution.

Katsav, who insists he is the innocent victim of a conspiracy, says he won't quit unless he is formally indicted. He will plead his case at a hearing before Attorney General Meni Mazuz, who has signaled his intent to put the 61-year-old president on trial.

Katsav stepped aside after parliament's House Committee voted 13-11 to grant his request. Parliamentary speaker Dalia Itzik stepped in as acting president, the first woman to hold the post.

For seven months, Katsav has been at the center of allegations that he preyed on women who worked for him, threatening to fire them if they didn't grant him sexual favors. His four accusers painted a picture diametrically opposed to Katsav's innocuous, even dull public image -- and the president, proclaiming his innocence, has said they were out for revenge because he fired them.

"I am not prepared to give in to blackmail, to lies," Katsav said Wednesday in an often vitriolic speech in which he rejected calls for his resignation. "Truth is on my side."

Minutes later, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert -- himself the subject of a criminal investigation -- said it was not enough for the president to take a leave of absence and called on Katsav to resign.

"Under these circumstances, there is no doubt in my mind that the president cannot continue to fulfill his position and he must leave the president's residence," Olmert said.

Lawmaker Zehava Galon, who is leading parliamentary efforts to remove Katsav, was outraged the House Committee didn't immediately start work on ousting him. "The decision taken today is a prize for a man accused of rape," she said. "Instead of finding himself behind bars, this man ... gets a prize of continuing to serve as president."

Committee chairwoman Ruhama Avraham said the panel would begin deliberating Katsav's removal next week.

Thirty lawmakers -- 10 more than required -- signed a motion to begin dismissal proceedings, and nearly 70 have said they would vote to remove Katsav, an aide to Galon said -- still short of the 90 votes needed in the 120-member house.

The scandal has badly tarnished the office of the presidency. The position, while ceremonial, traditionally was filled by statesmen and national heroes who were expected to serve as the country's moral light.

No sitting Israeli president has ever been charged with a crime, but the Israeli public is no stranger to the sight of its politicians mired in scandals.

Former Justice Minister Haim Ramon is on trial in a sexual misconduct case, and Olmert is under investigation for his role in the sale of a government-controlled bank. Also, top officials in the tax authority, along with one of Olmert's top aides, are embroiled in an investigation.

Katsav, whose seven-year term ends in July, made no public comment after the parliamentary committee's vote.

But shaking with fury on Wednesday, he ranted against journalists, police and Mazuz in a nearly hour-long diatribe, portraying himself as the victim of a vicious smear campaign by fired employees, with the eager cooperation of the news media and the police.

His proclamations of innocence were at odds with the picture painted by one of his accuser's lawyers.

The lawyer, Kinneret Barashi, portrayed Katsav as a predatory boss who singled out female employees for compliments and special attention that gradually turned into sexually loaded comments, groping and forced sex.