Ex-police chief: Hirsch is not the right man for the job

The choice of former IDF officer Gal Hirsch as Israel Police chief was criticized again Saturday, with former police commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki saying that the post was not a consolation prize, and that Hirsch was not right for the job.

“The police is not an experimentation laboratory and nor is it a consolation prize,” Aharonishki, who headed the force from 2001-8, notably including during the second intifada, said at an event in Holon on Saturday.

“We need to reach someone of stature and with the relative experience. If the public security minister (Gilad Erdan) was a little receptive, he would have made a different choice regarding Hirsch.”

The choice of Hirsch had been controversial among former and serving senior police officers, even before revelations that a company tied to Hirsch was under investigation by the FBI and the Israel Police itself.

Aharonishki said the rash of criminal proceedings and resignations involving numerous senior police officers over the past few years did not justify selecting a candidate from outside the organization. “You cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater. The police officers have to keep working,” he said.

“I am opposed to someone who has no comparative advantages in the role of commissioner. We need to get someone with stature and the relative experience. It is said of Hirsch that he has values and is eager to work, but nothing beyond that.”