Egozi’s Fury

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Everything is connected: The rocket fire on Ashkelon this morning; The top police officer suspected of receiving bribes from Rabbi Pinto; the insult to the American Secretary of State by our Defense Minister; and more.

How is it all connected? Our leaders suffer from a lack understanding and vision – in addition to, in some cases, basic stupidity – when it comes to handling the issues that are most important to us, the citizens.

Let’s get a few things straightened out. The rocket fire on Ashkelon last night was to be expected. A country willing to accept a constant “trickle” of rockets on its populace “deserves” another volley. The government, in its stupidity, allows the Hamas in Gaza to launch rockets on Israeli towns once every few days.

It could have been otherwise, it should have been otherwise. After the “trickle” the Air Force should have received an order to finish the job. How? Trust me, they know how to do it in one hour without endangering a single soldier. But our so called “leaders” in the government can’t handle any additional international criticism. They are willing to accept, however, having citizens in the south wake up to the sounds of rocket fire alarms. They can’t make the decision that every other political leader in the world would make in the same situation.

The investigation against the top police officer indicates a massive failure all across the law enforcement system. Everything begins at the top. There’s an Internal Security Minister in Israel. He can see the same photographs we, the citizens can see: The illogically close relations between respected rabbis, military figures and tycoons; and he still did nothing to stop it. Here’s what should have happened: The minister shouldn’t have waited for the photographs of the strange meetings to go public. The police knew. The minister should have gathered the top police officers and told them explicitly to choose between their rabbi friends – including some tycoons and criminal figures – and their uniforms. But that wasn’t done, and if some things were mentioned they weren’t decisive enough.

IHLS – Israel Homeland Security

So it’s all connected. Weak ministers and a lack of basic political understanding. Defense Minister Yaalon’s statements about Secretary Kerry have already caused a lot of damage to Israel. The defense establishment now begins the process of damage control.

Everybody who is slightly connected knows that many top American officials have an intense dislike (putting it mildly) for the “special security relations” between the U.S. and Israel. They don’t like the billions of dollars of aid money transferred to Israel every year, and they don’t like the security cooperation on many levels. And here comes our Defense Minister and gives them – there are many of them – all the tools they need to further damage the Israeli defense establishment.

In the past Israel had to cancel the “Lavi” jet fighter program because of the pressure from the same hostile Washington officials. In the past Israel had to cancel a huge deal with China for the sale of early response aircraft, due to a process that was started by the same officials.

So to go on an all-out frontal assault against the Secretary of State of our big ally is a stupid thing to do, to say the least. But when there’s no leader the underlings start acting up, with fiascoes like top police officers getting bribes, rocket fire on Israeli citizens and a minister insulting a friendly diplomat.

Unfortunately it doesn’t look like anything’s about to change. Our politicians don’t have a lot of time to manage the issues they were elected to handle. Instead they are busy fighting for survival in the coalition, or with manic interviewing and trashing other coalition members. So don’t expect any changes, certainly not for the better.