5 on the Dichter Scale

These words were no consolation for Karadi. What happened in Jerusalem Sunday was tantamount to the massacre of top police brass in two acts. In the first act, in the pages of the Zeiler commission's report, and more so in Justice Zeiler's commentary, the police force was presented as an empty void. Not exactly the mafia - the mafia is far less amateurish - but somewhere along those lines.

And then came the targeted assassination a la Avraham Dichter, the Minister of Internal Security. Ami Ayalon, Avi Dichter's predecessor at the Shin Bet, once told me how a decision to assassinate a target was made: Hours were devoted to the question of how to carry out the targeted assassination; a moment was devoted to who will be assassinated.

For months Dichter has been preoccupied with the question of how to get rid of Karadi and other officers who were not to his liking. He offered the position of police chief to Amram Mitzna, and according to police officers he also offered it to Amiram Levine. Levine turned down the offer, and rightfully so: He doesn't understand much about police matters.

Mitzna reacted as someone who may weigh the offer favorably. Dichter was quick to push the idea forward, and then he discovered an astonishing fact – Mitzna is a political man, the former Labor party chairman and its candidate for the premiership, a mayor and a Knesset member.

Then came Yaakov Ganot. Ganot brings with him an acquittal and a letter from the attorney general that are nothing to be proud of. There is hardly a doubt that his appointment will reach the High Court. Perhaps the High Court justices, whose public stance recently took a blow, will be reluctant to engage in a conflict with the government.

If Ganot fitted the bill for the post of heading the Prison Service, they will say, he can also head the police force; but perhaps the contrary will happen in the event that the court opts for such conflict in order to reassume its position of leading the fight against corruption.

There's a gamble here. It is doubtful whether Ganot's possible contribution to the police force is worth such a gamble. Dichter survived by the skin of his teeth in his first test as a minister. It can be understood why he led to the police chief's immediate resignation: In light of the things Zeiler said about him in the report and at the press conference, there was no point in Karadi completing his term in office.

Harsh, frightening report

It is difficult to understand why Dichter was in such a hurry to appoint a new police commissioner within hours of Karadi's resignation, why he ousted his deputy, and after ousting him why he suggested promoting him by appointing him to head the Prison Service. "Benny Koniak will be entering grade 2, but not at this school," senior police officials ridiculed.

Judge Zeiler tends to talk a lot and to say more than he intends to say. This happens to judges quite often: They remain silent for so many years at the courthouses that when they are given an opportunity, they simply can't stop talking.

However, the report is harsh, focused and frightening. Conduct such as that described in the report is unacceptable. The argument of those attacked in the report, that this is the way the police force conducts itself in other cases as well, is not comforting.

The contrary is true: It points to what every elderly woman fearing a burglar would strike her feels, what every citizen whose car is stolen feels, and what every customer whose money has been swindled feels: Perhaps we have a police force that can deal with terror attacks, but we don't have a people's police.

But in the exchange of one head for another, we haven't achieved a thing; we have only given an outlet the public's craving for punishment. And, of course, we have presented the minister of internal affairs as someone who knows how to make a decision (or alternately, one who is guided by public relations considerations.)

Within a single month Israel has replaced its chief of staff and its police commissioner. Such changing of the guard is indicative of the public order's general collapse.

Not here, thank heavens. Israel is stable enough not only to withstand the replacement of the police commissioner, but also the replacement of the president, the finance minister and even the prime minister. Perhaps we could ask for just one favor; don't do it all in one week.