* Published 00:56 13.08.10
* Latest update 00:56 13.08.10

http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/with-u-s-jewish-sponsor-ex-idf-chief-eyes-knesset-bid-1.307703?trailingPath=2.169%2C2.225%2C2.226%2C
Maj. Gen. (res. ) Dan Halutz raises about NIS 391,000 for a run for a position with an undisclosed political party.
By Or Kashti and Zvi Zrahiya

In a recent three-week period, former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Maj. Gen. (res. ) Dan Halutz raised about NIS 391,000 for a run for a position with a political party, the identity of which he has not disclosed. This information was contained in a report that Halutz handed Monday to State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss. Most of the sum, about NIS 373,000, is from a single donor, Jeffrey Silverman, an American active in the Chicago Jewish community.

Last night Halutz told Haaretz "I don't have anything to hide." However, he declined to comment on the matter.

At the end of last month, it was reported that Halutz is expected in the coming months to join the Kadima party. At the time, he responded: "Nothing will happen in September. That doesn't mean things won't be happening later."

According to the report, broadcast on Channel 10, the former IDF chief was expected to join Kadima within a matter of weeks as he wished to undertake an early start to a political campaign. It was thought Halutz was seeking to put public discussion of his conduct during the 2006 Second Lebanon War behind him to the greatest extent possible prior to the next Knesset election campaign.

In recent years, Silverman has been a major contributor to Friends of the IDF in the United States. In 2009, Silverman received the Yonatan Netanyahu Memorial Award from the organization for what the group said was his outstanding support for the soldiers of Israel. In 2006, he was active in an "Adopt a Battalion" program in which donors committed to provide three years of support. He was a participant in a Friends of the IDF mission to Israel in May of that year, during which one of the people he met was Halutz.

How can this man even dare to run for office after being the worse Chief of Staff of the IDF in Israel's history.

It was Halutz that brought Israel defeat in the Second Lebanon war along with his boss Olmert.

Israeli politics at it's worse.