Former general, would-be top cop Gal Hirsch announces he has cancer

Ex-army general Gal Hirsch, a former candidate for police commissioner who was recently indicted for tax offenses, announced on Facebook on Thursday that he has cancer.

“I have lately been dealing with cancer,” Hirsch wrote in a post. “I am being treated well and am in good hands.”

Apparently alluding to his recent troubles in the public sphere, Hirsch added: “The burden is heavy, after all. We are spirit, flesh and blood. People are fragile, even if they’re strong.”

He said he would “pray for a full recovery” and “persevere on this front as well.”

Hirsch, a once-promising senior IDF officer, resigned from the military over a damning inquiry into his conduct during the 2006 Second Lebanon War. He came under intense scrutiny and criticism in the wake of the abduction of two Israeli soldiers on the eve of the war in an area under his command, as well as for his leadership style during the war.

In 2015 he was nominated by then-police minister Gilad Erdan to serve as police chief, but his candidacy was sunk over suspicions of illicit business dealings.

In 2019 he attempted a run for the Knesset on his own platform but won only some 3,400 votes. He later joined the Likud party, but was not placed on its slate in subsequent elections.

In October Hirsch was indicted at the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court for allegedly failing to report profits on his operations in a defense company in Georgia.

He was indicted alongside three other business partners in Defensive Shield, a company that provided defense advice and military training and brokered arms sales to Georgia, and also provided services to other countries between 2007 and 2009.

Prosecutors allege that the men collectively enriched themselves to the tune of at least NIS 40 million (about $12.5 million), but failed to report this income to the Tax Authority.

Hirsch’s lawyers have asserted that his tax reports were lawful and complete.