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Under normal conditions, it would have been best to appoint a new chief commissioner to head Israel’s Police among the organization’s top echelon. But the current situation is far from normal.
The head-on clash between Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich and Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino has made the abnormal situation simply unbearable, to say the least.
Israeli Police is currently in the throes of a major upheaval due to all sorts of sex and corruption scandals involving senior officers.
This highly important organization, entrusted, inter alia, with Israel’s homeland security, must have a steady hand at the helm, and soon. Any delay will cause far greater damage than had already been done. The damage is already huge, unprecedented.
In this state of affairs, the minister of internal security must bring in someone from the outside to serve as police commissioner. This may lead to outrage among the top police chiefs, and some of them may even resign over this, but this effect will only be immediate and temporary. An outsider may not be familiar with the Police protocols and actions, but this person could benefit from a close, ongoing advisor that would enable the new chief to carry out the most burning tasks at the moment: stabilize the organization and reinstate it as a force with standing and prestige.
At times, it is incumbent upon ministers to take unpopular steps within the system they are in charge of. This is just one of these cases.
And another thing, the turmoil, which has grown to an uproar in the wake of the way the minister and the commission clashed calls for a timely decision concerning the appointment. Any day that passes in the current atmosphere amounts to further damage for the police and for us, the public.
iHLS editor-in-chief
