Maybe that's how Minister Aharonovich has survived almost unscathed for more than five and a half years in a position from which (almost) no one has returned alive (politically). Avi Dichter, Shlomo Ben Ami, Uzi Landau, all descended into the killing field of internal security ministers, after serving in the most thankless position in the government.
An explosive title that brings with it many expectations from the public, but very few tools to do anything.
On Friday, Minister Aharonovich gave an interview to Amnon Abramovich on Channel 2. Abramovich asked about 4 police officers who retired under embarrassing circumstances. The minister couldn't wait for the end of the question. He was so angry.
Let's leave Niso Shaham, he said. Why? It's not clear. Apparently, it's inconvenient.
Menashe Arbiv? I haven't heard his testimony yet, the minister replied.
Aharonovitch usually has mild hearing problems. As I recall, he claimed that the tape of the hostages to Hotline 100 was inaudible, and countless attempts to understand from the minister's office - after the audiotape was broadcast - how Aharonovitch reconciles his version with reality have yielded nothing. Forget it, history.
I was impatiently waiting for the minister to come to the retirement of Commissioner Bruno Stein. Surely the Minister of Internal Security would have a moral statement to make in prime time about a commissioner meeting a criminal suspect. The minister surely cannot accept such a norm.
Well, surprise, surprise, the minister didn't have a bad word to say about this. He said in general terms that he had given the police 'clear instructions.' What were the instructions exactly? Not to harass? Not to kiss rabbinical elders? The minister simply said so and didn't elaborate.
Last week, the good guy made a round of the (media) corpse of the commissioner. Aharonovitch harshly attacked Danino's unsuccessful trial in an interview with Nahum Barnea, a trial that even Yedioth didn't really blow up, about the fact that the next commissioner should come from within the ranks of the police. It turns out that everything that has been revealed about the police in recent months hasn't infuriated the minister as much as that terrible trial.
Miraculously, it became clear immediately afterwards that the minister (who managed to quarrel with the two commissioners who served under him) actually thinks like the chief rabbi we are discussing, that he never thought otherwise (not exactly accurate), but the violation of proper government procedures ("Why go to the media?"), is something that the good guy, it turns out, cannot pass up on as an agenda.
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When Avigdor Lieberman made his ultimate demand in 2099 to control all law enforcement cases, Attorney General Meni Mazuz conveyed a message to the Prime Minister – it is not appropriate for a criminal suspect to appoint the Minister of Public Security and the Minister of Justice. Legal, but not appropriate. Netanyahu tweeted. Without Yvette, he would not have a government. What would Mazuz do to him?
The extent of the damage to the law enforcement system as a result of the fact that Aharonovitch assigned the position to a criminal suspect will only be known in years to come. Aharonovitch and Lieberman have managed to create an image of relative independence for the Minister of Public Security. It is just an image.
In Operation Protective Edge, almost the only consensus among the cabinet ministers was the unimpressive presence, to say the least, of the Minister of Internal Security. Aharonovitch began the operation on the moderate side of the cabinet and quite quickly aligned himself with Yvette and switched sides. In my opinion, this is precisely the least harmful expression of the Minister of Internal Security's dependence on someone who made a career out of criminal investigations and working his way up the ranks of the police.
Where will our police officers draw a moral example from? Who exactly can preach to them about associating with criminal suspects? Someone who received his life's work from someone who was then a criminal suspect? Where do you think our police officers are directing their efforts to be appointed Commissioner? To the Office of the Minister of Internal Security, or to the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs? The police leadership is certain that every significant decision in the police goes through Yvette.
It really doesn't matter if it's true. This alone would have been worth peeling some of our good guy's deceptive "he's harmless" armor off.
• The article was published in Haaretz.'
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