TEL AVIV, Oct. 18 — For decades it was widely accepted that some of Israel’s top military officers and government ministers considered sexual encounters with female employees a seigneurial right.

A society built partly on the conscious effort to project an image of strength tended to overlook such harassment. In fact, a certain amount of male rakishness often added to a prominent man’s allure. The alleged womanizing by national legends like Moshe Dayan, for example, was considered part of their mystique.

But the ground is shifting rapidly under the feet of the current crop of leaders as a result of legal and societal changes. This week, the police recommended charging President Moshe Katsav with the rape of two former employees, the most serious criminal allegations ever made against an Israeli leader. And on Tuesday, Justice Minister Haim Ramon went on trial, accused of kissing a soldier against her will.

“When I was in the army it was assumed that the office of every senior officer was essentially a harem for him,” said Michael Oren, an historian and a senior fellow at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem research institute, who served in the military 30 years ago. “Israel is emerging from adolescence into adulthood.”