Now the problem is Dichter

How could Police Chief Karadi be replaced by someone whose record is far worse?

Mordechai Gilat
Published: 02.20.07, 20:56 / Israel Opinion

Many people raise an eyebrow each time they are reminded that Gideon Ezra, from the cabinet's lair, formerly filled the post of the Shin Bet's deputy chief. The Shin Bet, for some reason, is depicted as a hub of intelligent and creative people, and its leaders are attributed with integrity and valued judgment. Not with stupidity.

Then all of a sudden, out comes this ironed Rambo Avraham Dichter, and shows us that Gideon Ezra was no exception in Israel's General Security Service; not in his sharp mind, not in the wisdom of his decisions and not in the understanding of his position, commitments and public mission.

On the contrary: Dichter is worse than Ezra, he is less rational, full of self importance and unable to see beyond the tip of his nose. The government is stealing the country from the people, and he is preoccupied with appointing a tainted police commissioner, who was harshly reprimanded by the court. This is his leadership model. This is the role model he is bringing back to the police force. It's the type of insensitivity that can make any reasonable mortal explode.

Dichter is acting as though he never heard that criminals had infiltrated the highest ranks of the tax division, that several criminals are roaming around cabinet ministers' backyards, that a district judge was murdered, and that a sex offender celebrated his imprisonment with several of the State's saints. It's as if he doesn't live here. He is acting like someone who came here for a short visit without knowing that the year of "national stable cleaning" had been announced.

With his conduct, Dichter reminds me of the Crystal Theory, often mentioned by Attorney Dov Weisglass: The bad guys mix with the bad guys, the powerful with the powerful, and the good with the good. "This is reality," the veteran attorney once told me, "this is life."

Indeed, Dichter didn't join political parties associated with integrity and he didn't attempt to found a new and clean party to save the State of Israel. He preferred joining the Kadima Party of suspects and defendants; he reluctantly took up the post of minister of internal affairs, learned a few things about organized crime and the power of government corruption, and remained unperturbed. This doesn't really concern him.

Sons of Light and Sons of Darkness

Not a word was uttered by him regarding government corruption, not a word about the destruction of the police force at the hands of the government, not even an attempt to protect the High Court against those seeking to undermine it.

He didn't even demand the resignation of someone like Likud party member Tzachi Hanegbi, suspected of fraud and blackmail, and he didn't stand up for the state comptroller when evil persons sought his head. In the war between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness, he is among the latter. There is no doubt about it.

And indeed, after all that was written in the Zeiler Commission's report about the corruption it revealed, couldn't Minister Dichter find a candidate for the post of police commissioner who has no shady history and evidence of accepting perks?

Couldn't he find someone who wasn't acquitted by being given the benefit of the doubt, with scathing comments and harsh conclusions? Could it be that the honorable minister couldn’t find 10 Uzi Dayans, former army and police force candidates for the post throughout the country? What nonsense? What lies are these that he searched far and wide to no avail?

How an Israeli minister could dare present Yaakov Ganot as an adequate candidate, when he knows full well that Karadi was sent home for lesser than that. Karadi was not suspected of criminal wrongdoings, he was not acquitted by being given the benefit of the doubt and he didn't accept valuable gifts. How could Karadi possibly be replaced by someone whose record is worse? How could Dichter hold the Zeiler report - that rocked the nation - in such contempt?

This story is further exacerbated when examining the appointment of Major General Miki Levy to the post of deputy chief commissioner. Why him of all people?

Why is this lifeless officer, who is associated with the prime minister's cronies, better than other senior major generals in the police force? What is his advantage over experienced district chiefs, except for the fact that he is close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Shula Zaken, his bureau chief? Is there anything tangible in the sense that at the wink of an eye a compromise was reached between Dichter and Olmert, against whom an initial investigation is currently underway?

Thanks to Dichte, instead of Olmert having one supportive police commissioner, he now has two docile heads of police. Ganot and Levy. They are his. He will try to lean on them until the High Court ruling.