Meet the new boss

The controversial man tapped to become the next top cop riles police officers and (most) pundits alike in the papers on Wednesday.

Gal Hirsch is a former IDF brigadier general who resigned when he came under fire in 2006 amid allegations of mismanaging the Second Lebanon War. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan’s decision to pick him from outside the force ruffles some feathers, but he said that despite the criticism, “I’m convinced that Gal is the best suited candidate at this time to bring the necessary change to the Israel Police and strengthen trust in it.”

But senior police officers (all of whom remain anonymous) voice serious criticism to Yedioth Ahronoth about Erdan’s decision, calling it “contemptuous,” “whack,” and saying that “the police is not a casino where you gamble with the commissioner.” Former Jerusalem police chief Aryeh Amit was one of the few who put his name to his words, saying, “It’s an unfortunate and stupid decision; when I heard the name I was in shock.”

“Contrary to what people think, the police force is not [just] a cop handing out parking tickets,” he said.

Surprisingly some of the fiercest criticism of the appointment comes from Israel Hayom, which cites former senior policemen saying Hirsch’s appointment is a denigration of the force. “It’s a great shame,” one former police commissioner tells the paper. “We didn’t believe in our worst dreams that this would happen.”

“It’s a humiliation of the entire organization,” another former police chief says. “The message to the institution is that experience and knowledge aren’t values.”

To drive its point home, Israel Hayom also features a small column on the previous police chief brought in from the outside, who lasted just a year in the post.

Perhaps most shockingly, Haaretz quotes senior police officials saying, “The public hates the police; otherwise a thing like this couldn’t happen.”

“I don’t know what Hirsch knows about the police, if he can appreciate my work or whether he knows what I am worth to the organization,” another senior cop tells the paper. “Now I need to prove myself anew.”

The newspaper columnists join the growing chorus of Hirsch’s critics, with headlines of gloom and doom such as “It will end in tears,” “The wrong man,” and “Minister Erdan lost trust in the police brass.”

After a long-winded and roundabout explanation of Hirsch’s service record, Yossi Yehoshua writes in Yedioth Ahronoth that “on the face of it, the appointment of a green (read: IDF) officer to command blue uniforms (read: Israel Police) was supposed to bring sounds of joy from retired generals. In practice it created an absurd situation in which those close to Hirsch are forced to turn to former officers to get them to come out in his defense. Officers who refuse to be interviewed by name admitted they were in shock.”

“Everyone asked in turn: What came over minister [Erdan] when he made the appointment?” he says. “Even if he ignored interpersonal relations, the biggest unit Hirsch commanded was a division — and he was dismissed from it. Not a command, not an arm, not even a regiment.”

Yehoshua reserves his most biting criticism for last, however. “It’s doubtful whether he can learn the police rulebook, investigations and the war on crime, and even more doubtful that he can align himself with [IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen.] Gadi Eisenkot, [Mossad chief] Tamir Pardo and [Shin Bet chief] Yoram Cohen,” he says. “His chances of success are low, both because of his lack of experience and because of the fact he won’t garner any help.”

Amos Harel writes in Haaretz that Erdan is taking “a big risk” by appointing Hirsch, but he doubts that the Turkel Committee, which is tasked with the approval of Hirsch’s appointment, will shoot him down.

“It’s easy to understand what Erdan found in Hirsch,” Harel writes. “He’s an intelligent man, analytical, and articulate. More than any other thing, you can bet that his entry to the position will produce a gleam in his eyes and hunger to succeed.”

At the same time, however, he says that Erdan will quickly become aware of Hirsch’s other traits which will prove more problematic for the post: “his dramatic language, the complete lack of personal irony, the tendency to remember every word ever written about him and be offended by every bit of nonsense, the singular and very subjective way Hirsch observes things and analyzes them.”

Playing off Hirsch’s career in the paratroopers, Dan Margalit writes in Israel Hayom that he would have chosen a former police officer or a current senior brass for the position: “You don’t parachute to the top, rather you climb up from below.”

He says the move exposed an underlying conflict between Erdan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — Erdan had wanted the foreign minister position which Netanyahu in the end kept for himself. Ultimately, however, Margalit has faith in Hirsch’s abilities to rise to the many challenges he enumerates, saying, “He’s capable. He’s charismatic. We need to cross his fingers, and ours.”