More than 40 retired senior police officers, including five former police chiefs, held an emergency meeting Wednesday evening following Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan's decision to tap Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, former deputy commander of the IDF's Depth Corps, for the role of Israel's new police commissioner. Hirsch is slated to replace retired police chief Yohanan Danino, whose term ended in June. The decision to name a candidate from outside the police force met scathing criticism, and the retired officers admitted the meeting was called with the explicit intention of devising ways to thwart Hirsch's appointment. Hirsch's nomination is pending the approval of both the government and the Public Service Nominations Committee. The confirmation process is expected to take several weeks, during which Tel Aviv District Police Commander Maj. Gen. Benzi Sau will continue as acting police chief. Wednesday's meeting was led by former police chiefs Moshe Karadi, Shlomo Aharonishky, Assaf Hefetz, Yehuda Wilk and Yaakov Turner, and attended by dozens of retired officers, most of whom are former district police commanders who at one time or another were in the running for the position of commissioner. The group demanded that Erdan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rescind the nomination, and the five former police chiefs announced they would ask to appear before the Public Service Nominations Committee to express their reservations. "We recognize the prime minister and the public security minister's authority to nominate the commissioner, but we have serious reservations about this appointment. We do not believe it stands the test of reasonability," Karadi said. "This nomination raises serious questions about the decision-making process in this case, as well as about the basic requirements for the position." Hefetz criticized the decision, saying, "This appointment is an insane gamble. [Hirsch] is not worthy of this post and this deals a fatal blow to the organization." Turner slammed the nomination as "unthinkable." At the end of the meeting, Karadi stressed that the protest was "not about Gal Hirsch -- we have nothing against him personally. We have reservations about the decision-making process." Once a commissioner is confirmed, regardless of who is chosen for the job, "we will stand by him and offer any assistance necessary," he said. Hirsch's nomination met two-pronged criticism, over the decision to tap a candidate from outside the police force, as well as over issues in his operational past, mainly the military's decision to limit his promotion. Hirsch, 51, a decorated officer, headed the Northern Command's Galilee Division at the time of the July 2006 abduction of reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser by Hezbollah, which sparked the Second Lebanon War. Hirsch's operational decisions following the abductions were harshly criticized, and he resigned his commission in late 2006, after a military inquiry ruled that he should be denied any future promotion. In 2008, the Winograd commission, tasked with investigating the war, absolved Hirsch of any operational failure. 'Protest pathetic' Public Security Ministry officials, as well as senior police officers, leveled harsh criticism at the proponents of the "emergency meeting," saying the protest was "pathetic" as it came from the very people who were largely responsible for the erosion in the public's faith in the police. This dropped to an unprecedented low this year following a series of operational failures resulting in civilian fatalities, as well as over several corruption and sex scandals involving senior officers, all of whom were dismissed. "The fact that former police chiefs hold an emergency meeting to infringe on the appointment of a commissioner, but they never saw fit to hold an emergency meeting over the fact that seven commanders had to resign over corruption and sex scandals, is very strange and it's in very poor taste," a ministry official said. "What's even sadder is that this protest comes from some of the very police officers responsible for the sorry state of the police force." Erdan criticized the former police chiefs, saying, "The same people entrusted with guarding democracy and law enforcement are now trying to undermine my democratic authority to name the next commissioner." He said he knew the nomination would be controversial. "There are always people who are disappointed by who is named as commissioner," he said. "I knew that once everyone learned it was an outside nomination the disappointment would be greater, but external nominations are not unheard of. It happened in the Mossad [in 2002] with Meir Dagan, and there are many other examples." The new commissioner's first order of business would be to restore the morals, values, and ethics of the Israel Police, as well as rehabilitate the public's faith in the force, Erdan said. He added that he believed that "once the initial disappointment among police brass subsides," the senior officers would offer their new commander their full cooperation. "Given the internal state of the police force and the need for far-reaching organizational reforms, an external nomination has many advantages," Erdan said. Senior incumbent police commanders expressed their disapproval of the meeting as well, saying the former police chiefs were perceived as trying to incite a revolt within police ranks. "This was conduct unbecoming, pure and simple. That meeting was pathetic," one police officer told Israel Hayom. "Holding an 'emergency meeting' against the future commissioner? These police chiefs should have held an emergency meeting to determine what hand they had in the police's decline over the past few years. This meeting only proves bringing someone from outside the force was the right thing to do." And another officer said, "Some of the [retired] officers who attended the meeting thought they would be tapped for the role. Some of them even met with Erdan. Now that the decision has been made they're being sore losers. They are acting like petulant children."
Meanwhile, the controversy over Hirsch's nomination has prompted the Attorney General's Office to review whether the appointment would stand up to High Court of Justice scrutiny, should a petition against it be filed.
