Ministers beam, police brass scowl over next top cop

A failure to find a suitable candidate for commissioner from within the Israel Police led Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan to look elsewhere, he said Tuesday, defending his controversial choice of a former IDF brigadier general as the nation’s next police chief.

The decision to tap Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch was met with praise from political leaders, but senior Israel Police officials past and present told Channel 10 that they considered Hirsch’s appointment “a spit in the face.”

In a media blitz Tuesday evening after the announcement of Hirsch’s nomination, Erdan said his decision was largely influenced by the many corruption and sexual harassment scandals that have plagued the force in the past year. Nearly half of the police’s division heads have faced sexual harassment allegations in recent years, with some resigning as evidence against them accumulated.

“Despite the fact that the police has an excellent senior staff and three deputy commissioners who made it to the finish line and who are above and beyond — and I expressed my appreciation to them and asked them to continue their service in the Israel Police — I decided that I need to bring someone in from the outside in order to change the organizational culture that currently exists today,” Erdan told Channel 10 television.

“I need to look at the organization as an organization and see why there is such damage to the public trust [in the police]. I eventually decided that a person coming from the IDF — with its different norms and standards — has the best chance of bringing about change,” Erdan told Channel 2. “I think he is the most suitable person to effect the change necessary in the Israel Police, and this has a lot to do with the sum total of all necessary personality traits.”

The 51-year-old Hirsch currently chairs the Israel Leadership Institute and serves as CEO of Defensive Shield Holdings, a company that describes itself as a “provider of strategic, operational and tactical solutions for the defense, security, and homeland security sectors around the world.”

The internal security minister expressed disappointment at acting commissioner Bentzi Sau’s announcement, following the news of Hirsch’s appointment, that he would resign from the police on September 1.

“Bentzi Sau regrettably announced his intention to step down and I asked him to serve as the deputy chief of the Israel Police,” Erdan told Channel 2. “I still hope he will consider my request and I would very much like to see Bentzi continue in the force.”

President Reuven Rivlin congratulated Hirsch on his appointment, saying, “I have no doubt that his success will be our success.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also voiced satisfaction with Erdan’s choice, saying that Hirsch was “an esteemed fighter and general who served in a string of commanding positions in the IDF and led his people into battle and into many operations with courage and creativity.

“As the designated police chief he will march the police forward in full view of the challenges it faces, while continually striving to increase the personal security of the citizens of Israel and strengthen the rule of law,” the prime minister said.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, a former IDF chief of staff, said he has known Hirsch since he was a young officer, and lauded his “leadership, professionalism, determination and creativity.”

But he also warned there would be a “learning period” for Hirsch and the officers under his command. Ya’alon said he was sure that Hirsch would bring his talents to the table, “and march the Israel Police and its officers forward.”

Hirsch was removed from his command of the IDF division on the Lebanese border in 2006 in the wake of perceived lapses in command and control and training that led to what many saw as the war’s poor management and indecisive conclusion.

Some families of IDF soldiers who fell in that war criticized Hirsch’s appointment. David Einhorn, whose son Yehonatan fell in Lebanon in 2006, told the Walla news site that he was dismayed by Erdan’s decision.

“Nine years have passed since I lost my boy in the Second Lebanon War, and it looks like Gilad Erdan has a short memory and forgot the bitter failure of the commanding echelon during the war,” Einhorn said. “I have only to be sorry for the short memory of those who pull the strings. After they whitewashed all of them – the then-IDF chief and the four brigadier generals who served during the war, they continue this whitewashing. Two of these brigadier generals have since been promoted to major generals and now brigadier general Hirsch is also given a prize and appointed chief of police.”

The Winograd Committee, established by the government after the 2006 war to examine its failures and draw lessons for the future said that Hirsch needed to draw “personal conclusions” from some of the failures in his command, but said he was not responsible for the IDF’s key failures in that conflict.