The Man Who'll Replace Rummy

Bob Gates is a Bush family hand from way back. But he'll need all his skills, and lucky stones too, as he takes on the second-hardest job in Washington.

The last time presumptive Pentagon boss Robert M. Gates faced Senate confirmation â/&/#128;/&/#148; for CIA director in 1991â/&/#128;/&/#148; he put a small good luck charm in his pocket. It was a smooth, white, oblong stone he'd picked up while hiking in Washington state's Olympic range. Gates put it in his pocket to remind him during the tough confirmation hearings that there was life after Washington if his nomination went down to defeat.

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Minors most likely victims of sexual abuse in Saudi Arabia

According to recent studies, 60 percent of all sexual assault victims are minors. Family members commit nearly one third of these incidents.

Addressing the issue of family violence at the Jeddah Chamber of Industry and Commerce last week, Inaam Robai, chairperson of the Committee for Protecting Children?s Rights at the Armed Forces Hospital, said that child abuse in Saudi Arabia has become a very serious issue.

"The term 'family violence' includes many different forms of abuse, mistreatment or neglect that adults or children may experience in their homes," said Robai. "As our understanding of the nature and extent of violence within intimate relationships and families improves, and our insight deepens, the definition of family violence continues to evolve."

She pointed out that Interior Ministry studies have shown that 45 percent of children are mistreated during their daily lives.

"Unfortunately we don't like to talk about the problem and we always ignore it here in Saudi Arabia," she said.

Robai cited a study of Makkah households estimating that 77 percent of child abusers are parents.

"Abuse may take place anywhere and may occur, for example, within the child's home or that of someone known to the child," she said.

"Many cases of child abuse remain undisclosed, either because a child does not, or cannot, tell anyone what has happened to them, or because no one reports the abuse to the authorities."

Participants in recent conference in Jeddah called for forming a committee of experts under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Affairs to solve problems concerning domestic issues.

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Despite law, sex with minors goes unpunished in Israel

Ruth Sinai

Last August, police arrested Vadim Bartel, 41, on suspicion of engaging a 15-year old girl as a prostitute. The police caught him red-handed, as he sent the girl to a client's home. The client had requested "fresh meat." Bartel was accused of pimping. The client, like others who employed the 14-year-old's services, suffered no legal consequences. This, despite the fact that Clause 203 of the Penal Law stipulates that those who pay for the sexual services of a minor must serve three years in prison.

Enacted in 2000, Clause 203 - the only clause which permits the trial of clients of prostitutes - was added to protect minors from exploitation. But since becoming law, the clause has been applied only once, apparently in the context of a plea bargain. Police maintain that the law has not been implemented because prostitution among minors is rare. But the Elem non-profit organization, which assists youth at risk, maintains there are more than a thousand minors engaged in prostitution in Israel.

In coming days, Elem will mount a media campaign to fight this phenomenon. Ads will attempt to raise awareness of the fact that those who engage in sex with minors are engaging in sex with children.

"The more we decrease demand, the smaller the numbers of minors who offer themselves up will be," says Elem Director Tzion Gabai. "There are thousands of adults who obtain sexual services from minors. We are a masculine, macho society and, in certain cultures, engaging in relations with what is called 'fresh meat' is considered a conquest. All these minors are victims of their life stories and anyone who buys sexual services from them is exploiting their distress."

Elem volunteers work undercover to find these minors on the Internet and in "spa" clubs, often associated with organized crime. According to Gabai's estimates, about a quarter of the acts of prostitution take place in these settings. A volunteer who discovers a minor offering his services invites that minor to contact Elem's hotline or stay in the organization's day facility.

The law raises the question of whether other nations have addressed prostitution by acting against clients. Sweden is the only nation that enacted a law which condemns clientele. But MK Zehava Gal-On (Meretz), who established the parliamentary committee to fight trade in women, says that the Swedish law did not actually cause a decline in the industry.

Nevertheless, the nation must attempt to use such law to protect minors, according to Gal-On. "When there is demand, there is supply. Those who procure sexual services from minors must know that they will be punished," she says. In her opinion, procurement of sexual services from minors represents one aspect of a slippery slope: "Those who believe that it is fine to exploit foreign women, because they are not our own, should not be surprised when others begin to use Israeli minors."

Gal-On believes police preferences are misguided. She says they prefer to take on pimps rather than clientele. "In my opinion, clients collaborate with pimps and they are guilty, too."

Police say the number of minors who engage in prostitution is much smaller than Elem estimates. "We do not excuse anyone who is caught red-handed with minors," said Chief Superintendent Suzie Ben Baruch, head of the Youth Division. "But I do not remember a case in the last three years in which a customer was caught red-handed with a minor."

Attorney Naomi Levenkron, of the Hotline for Migrant Workers and the College of Management, recently contacted State Prosecutor Eran Shendar, requesting that police and prosecutors enforce the law. Levenkron received no response to her request, but in response to Haaretz, the Justice Ministry said the State Prosecutor attaches great significance to enforcing laws that protect minors.

That being said, all the examples provided by the ministry involve assault, abuse, and neglect of minors, not prostitution. "Instructions explicitly declare that there is a great deal of public interest in intensive enforcement when there is suspicion of involvement of minors in prostitution," they reported. The ministry did not explain why it does not try clients for engaging in prostitution with minors.

According to Levenkron, the law needs to be changed. The fact that statutory rape of a minor - even if consenual - is punishable by a 20-year prison sentence, but paying for sex with a minor is punishable by only three years is completely distorted.

"Money is the only element that transforms statutory rape into prostitution," she says. "But the crime is the same crime. A man only has to throw NIS 50 at a girl to reduce his sentence by 17 years - if he is sentenced at all."

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Today in history - Dec. 29

Today is Friday, Dec. 29, the 363rd day of 2006. There are two days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Dec. 29, 1916 (according to the New Style calendar; Dec. 16th by the Old Style), Grigory Rasputin, the so-called "Mad Monk" who had wielded great influence with Czar Nicholas II, was murdered by a group of Russian noblemen in St. Petersburg.

On this date:

In 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in England.

In 1808, the 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, was born in Raleigh, N.C.,

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Today in history - Dec. 29

The Associated Press

Today is Friday, Dec. 29, the 363rd day of 2006. There are two days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Dec. 29, 1916 (according to the New Style calendar; Dec. 16th by the Old Style), Grigory Rasputin, the so-called "Mad Monk" who had wielded great influence with Czar Nicholas II, was murdered by a group of Russian noblemen in St. Petersburg.

On this date:

In 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in England.

In 1808, the 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, was born in Raleigh, N.C.,

In 1845, Texas was admitted as the 28th state.

In 1851, the first American Young Men's Christian Association was organized, in Boston.

In 1890, the Wounded Knee massacre took place in South Dakota as some 300 Sioux Indians were killed by U.S. troops sent to disarm them.

In 1934, Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

In 1940, during World War II, Germany dropped incendiary bombs on London, setting off what came to be known as "The Second Great Fire of London."

In 1975, a bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 people.

In 1986, former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan died at his home in Sussex, England, at age 92.

In 1989, playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia by the country's Federal Assembly, becoming the first noncommunist to attain the post in more than four decades.

Ten years ago: War-weary guerrilla and government leaders in Guatemala signed an accord ending 36 years of civil conflict. North Korea apologized for sending a spy submarine into South Korean waters.

Five years ago: A fire sparked by a fireworks explosion in downtown Lima, Peru, killed 274 people.

One year ago: International monitors said they would review Iraq's parliamentary elections in response to fraud complaints by Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups.

Today's Birthdays: Actress Inga Swenson is 74. ABC newscaster Tom Jarriel is 72. Actress Mary Tyler Moore is 69. Actor Jon Voight is 68. Country singer Ed Bruce is 67. Rock musician Ray Thomas is 65. Singer Marianne Faithfull is 60. Jockey Laffit Pincay Jr., is 60. Actor Ted Danson is 59. Actor Jon Polito is 56. Singer-actress Yvonne Elliman is 55. Actress Patricia Clarkson is 47. Comedian Paula Poundstone is 47. Rock singer-musician Jim Reid (The Jesus and Mary Chain) is 45. Actor-comedian Mystro Clark is 40. Actor Jason Gould is 40. Movie director Andy Wachowski is 39. Actress Jennifer Ehle is 37. Rock singer-musician Glen Phillips is 36. Actor Kevin Weisman is 36. Actor Jude Law is 34. Rapper Pimp C is 33. Actor Mekhi Phifer is 32. Actor Shawn Hatosy is 31. Actor Diego Luna is 27. Country singer Jessica Andrews is 23.

Thought for Today: "If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in." — Rachel Carson, American biologist (1907-1964).

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