Attila Somfalvi
Photo: Gabi Menashe
Turkish bazaar in IDF
Op-ed: Latest IDF fiasco shows all red lines have been crossed under Bibi’s leadership
It doesn’t matter whether the document
published Friday is genuine or forged, superbly crafted or a bluff meant to undermine Major General Yoav Galant’s race for the post of IDF chief of staff. What we’ve discovered this weekend, again, is that all red lines had been crossed under Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership.
What we have here is anarchy and chaos.
Everyone does whatever they wish and there’s nobody out there who would pound the table and put things in order. There is no king in Israel. When looking at Israel’s deteriorating global status, the PM’s zigzags in respect to significant decisions, and now the Galant affair- which also encompasses the publicized, ugly dispute between the army chief and defense minister – one gets the feeling that everything is permissible, and that there’s nobody out there who would call the rebellious kids to order.
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“There is no reason for the prime minister to respond to this,” Netanyahu’s close associated said with a shrug. “The defense establishment has a father, and that’s the defense minister. Finally we see an affair that has nothing to do with the PM, so why should he intervene?”
Yet Netanyahu is not alone. As it turned out, the defense minister also managed to stumble en route to making almost every significant decision. Ehud Barak apparently likes to humiliate the people under him. When he took his post he did the same to Ephraim Sneh, whom he deluded for many days before informing him that he has no intention of keeping him as his deputy.
The good old Peretz era
In recent months, Barak has been putting Army Chief Ashkenazi through a tortuous road as well; in recent days the defense minister is doing the same to the candidates for the next chief of staff. Barak is apparently unable to take decisions in an easy, appropriate, commonly accepted and dignified manner. When comparing him to his predecessor Amir Peretz, the differences are like night and day.
Even though he was smeared in the media, to Peretz’s credit we can say that the appointment processes during his tenure were relatively smooth. Ashkenazi, who was an outside candidate for the post of army chief, was appointed within a few weeks without any chaos, without humiliation, and without odd affairs. The same was true for Defense Ministry Director General Pinhas Buchris and for other sensitive appointments.
The latest affair, whether real or not, raises endless question marks and mostly prompts one big question: How could it be that the appointment of one of Israel’s most important and sensitive posts is managed like a Turkish bazaar? How could it be that in a democratic state anyone can influence, smear, eliminate candidates, and change reality? And how is it that the PM and defense minister don’t throw over the table, clear the atmosphere immediately, and curb the deterioration of Israel’s public life time after time, affair after affair.
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