Regev is first gov’t minister to slam Hirsch appointment

Culture Minister Miri Regev is the first government minister to criticize the appointment of Gal Hirsch as police commissioner.

Regev, who served as IDF spokesperson during the Second Lebanon War — when Hirsch served as a division commander — says that top army officers who examined his conduct during the war found him to be unworthy of holding command positions.

Therefore, continues the minister, one must “think twice” before approving his appointment as chief of the Israel Police.

“I am sure that if Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan were aware of additional information [on Hirsch], he would not recommend this appointment [for the government’s approval],” she adds.

Erdan chose Hirsch for the role last week.

Regev states that she “feels obligated to say this in the government meeting. I did not say this to the media, because many bereaved families and major generals who examined Hirsch’s conduct during the Second Lebanon War spoke to me” about the appointment.

These people, Regev goes on, “expected that people who have a stamp of being unworthy of command positions not be appointed to such positions… This is what the reports say and I’m sure that if Gilad Erdan knew this beforehand, he would have thought twice before making this appointment.”

Another minister asks her why she didn’t speak her mind over the past few days in the media. “As a minister, I am obligated to say what I think,” Ynet quoted her as saying.

Erdan answered Regev drily: “My opinion differs from yours, and I have no intention of changing it.”