Yaalon on CORRUPTION

I have a confession to make.

I purposely ignored all those stories about corruption and scandal in the Israeli government during the period leading up to and including the Disengagement. I assumed that all governments have some level of corruption, and that to single out Israel for what I viewed as a common and widespread trait would be unfair. I also thought that to emphasize the corruption in Israel would be to engage in a certain level of gossip that I found distasteful and inappropriate.

I couldn't have been more naive... or more wrong.

In a recent conference call with bloggers, former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen.Moshe Yaalon said that he worries about corruption "more than the Iranian threat." And believe me, he worries about the Iranian threat quite a bit. (Quote: "I believe that the Iranian regime's interest is to initiate any kind of armed conflict as soon as possible.")

Now let's back up for a minute. You will remember that Yaalon was the 17th IDF Chief of Staff, serving in that capacity from July 2002 until June 1, 2005. The announcement in February 2005, that his tour of duty would not be extended, came as a great shock at the time:

.... This virtual sacking hit Israel like a thunderclap after midnight Tuesday, February 15, the more shocking since it followed shortly after the announcement that Shin Beit Director, the second top czar of Israel’s war on Palestinian terror, will also not be asked to stay on when his stint is up in May. Both of these experienced veterans, widely acclaimed for their achievements in cutting down Palestinian terror, are being dropped ahead of the evacuations of Israeli civilians and troops from the Gaza Strip and northern West bank in the coming July. Both have spoken out against the step – each in his professional capacity.

By Wednesday morning, a vocal chorus from the extreme political left to the right had condemned the step as irresponsible. The Knesset foreign affairs and defense committee will be called into urgent session.

An angry tremor ran through the IDF’s high command. High albeit anonymous officers voiced fears of the destabilizing effect on the armed forces at a very tricky period. The top soldier’s retirement inevitably generates a round of new appointments and musical chairs which are bound to complicate the run-up to the dangerous and painful withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Many commanders expect the post-disengagement Palestinian territory to turn rapidly into a fast-exploding powder keg.

It is too soon to say whether General Yaalon jumped or was pushed. But it hardly matters. Prime minister Ariel Sharon and defense minister Shaul Mofaz obviously wanted him out of the way and replaced with a more supportive military chief before the evacuations began....

Looking back to that time, I even posted the results of a poll that was suppressed -- in which 37 percent of Israelis were said to favor Sharon's disengagement plan, while 38 [or 39] percent preferred a "Jewish Alternative Disengagement Plan" in which Israel would annex territory in Gaza and Northern Shomron (Samaria) and expel the Arabs there, instead of the Jews -- yet I ignored charges of corruption. Mea culpa.

As early as December 2004 I duly noted calls for a public referendum on Disengagement -- yet when no referendum was ever held, I continued to ignore stories and accusations about corruption. Mea culpa.

I could go on and on in this vein but you'd get bored, Gd forbid, so let's just skip to the chase.

After purposely ignoring the corruption issue for years, and thinking myself a good person for doing so, I had quite the Boker Tov Moment (WAKE UP!) on Wednesday when Gen. Yaalon said to bloggers:

"I believe that the decision to go to the disengagement plan was because of corruption, and understanding that by going to this kind of plan our prime minister would save himself from the investigations and unfortunately it still exists, and I would say this is the most important challenge to deal with, because I believe that the mismanagement of the leadership and the incompetence of the leadership is the outcome of the corruption..."

The disengagement was an unmitigated disaster.

Yaalon: "It's not because of a strategic decision, it was a ... decision to save people from investigation."

Likewise, the situation in which Israel now finds itself, as a result of mismanagement and incompetence, is an unmitigated disaster.

There is a good reason that Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah has accepted UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which sets the terms for a cease-fire between his jihad army and the State of Israel. The resolution represents a near-total victory for Hizbullah and its state sponsors Iran and Syria, and an unprecedented defeat for Israel and its ally the United States.

So when Gen. Yaalon tells us all this stems from corruption, a corruption so deep that it worries him more than the Iranian threat, you can bet it's time to wake up. In fact, we're late.

Bibi Netanyahu, six months ago:

"... this is only the tip of the corruption iceberg. It is the less important 10 percent that is above the water. The more serious corruption is below the surface. It is hardly talked about; it is hardly known about. But it is the truly worrisome corruption, it is the true danger."

Gen. Yaalon promised us in the call that he would make available an article he wrote, recently translated into English, about his "perspective regarding the decision making process of the disengagement plan ... part of it is corruption."

I look forward to it. I'm awake now. I'm paying attention. And I'll never ignore Corruption again. I promise.

Comments

[RR]

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC06.php?CID=932 From a lecture earlier this year by Ya’alon: "Israeli solidarity is also affected by the degree to which the rule of law and democratic principles are upheld in society. In a country where “law” has come to resemble a beautiful book on a shelf -- it is read and used when the need arises, but at other times it is merely of ornamental value -- it is of supreme importance that IDF commanders set an example, keep their hands clean, and teach their subordinates to do the same. As a military man who spent many years with Israel’s civilian decision makers, I knew how bad things had gotten in this regard, and I always saw it as my duty to keep the IDF from going down the same road. "Beyond the rule of law, I have seen a similar breakdown in democratic decision making -- notably in the process that led to last summer’s disengagement from Gaza."

[westbankmama]

I remember arguing about this vociferously before the disengagement - and the Americans, even those extremely right wing, would claim that we in Israel were being paranoid. It is important to know that in Israel there is no system of checks and balances - and that the media is almost totally left wing, so that they do not do their job of bringing problems to light. This mix leads to a huge amount of corruption.