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By Bruce S. Ticker
May 7, 2006
There goes Israel. Maybe.
Why bother to contribute more money to Israel? Why bother to maintain our moral support? Why bother to defend Israeli policies in the face of criticism?
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert possibly made his first serious blunder: he appointed Amir Peretz as defense minister. This means that the untested Peretz will undergo on-the-job training to implement the trivial function of ensuring Israel's survival. (Note: There are no doubt plenty of Israel supporters who believe that Peretz's appointment is not Olmert's only serious mistake.)
Peretz could well turn out to be an outstanding defense minister, but we have no reason to be confident of such a prospect.
In addition, the choice of a civilian rather than a veteran military commander might be a good move. As military analyst Amir Rapaport writes in Maariv: "An appointment of this kind can stir fresh security thinking and eradicate the personal considerations that exist when the defense minister comes from one of the cliques inside the army."
Is Peretz that civilian who can do better than a general, part of one of those cliques? He has no experience in running anything in a national government. He was once a captain in the military, which is certainly a respectable accomplishment, but most of his experience has been that of a trade union leader.
At first, I wondered if Olmert flipped his lid and then I recognized that political expediency is the only plausible explanation. Simply put, Olmert's new centrist party, Kadima, needs the Labor party's 19 Knesset members to support his main policies. Handing the new Labor leader the defense portfolio was the price he had to pay. Uri Dan, one of the most wired-in journalists in Israel, affirmed as much in a New York Post article on Friday, May 5.
Incredibly, Peretz's issues during the election campaign were social-economic changes to relieve poverty, and he certainly seemed suited for a position in that area. Yet, the result of negotiations was Peretz's elevation (from what?) to minister of defense.
These passages from a Jewish Telegraphic Agency story carried by Philadelphia's Jewish Exponent lay out much of what even the most able defense minister is up against: ?How to deal with Palestinian terrorism under a radical, Hamas-led Palestinian Authority that refuses to condemn attacks; how to prepare for the challenge posed by Iran's nuclear program, which is led by a regime that talks about wiping Israel off the map; how to accelerate completion of Israel's West Bank security fence, delayed in part by bureaucratic bottlenecks in the Defense Ministry itself; and how to facilitate a major West Bank evacuation with minimal friction between the army and evacuated settlers.?
Not too much pressure, eh?
In Friday's New York Post article, Uri Dan conceded that both Olmert and Peretz lack experience in national security matters. However, Dan stressed that armed forces commander Dan Halutz "will play the major role in matters like Iran?s nuclear weapons program."
Except to note that elected political leaders must set policy, Dan does not make clear where this will leave Peretz. Will he be a mere figurehead or will he be participating in decisions on subjects of which he has little knowledge?
Comforting, eh? Only the survival of Israel hangs in the balance. So far, Olmert?s choice for defense minister is downright indefensible.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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