Iconfess to being a longtime admirer of Moshe (“Bogie”) Yaalon who “took a leave” from politics last week after being replaced as defense minister by new coalition partner Avigdor Lieberman.
Yaalon has always struck me as the Israeli version of Cincinnatus the Roman general who twice came out of retirement to lead Roman forces to victory and then renounced his dictatorial powers and returned to his private estate as soon as victory was achieved. In short Yaalon is the rare Israeli politician capable of separating his personal interests from those of the nation and putting the latter first.
That last quality even more than his intimate knowledge of the IDF makes Yaalon’s replacement by Lieberman a potential national disaster. No one has ever suspected the wily Lieberman of acting only out of disinterested motives.
Israeli parents must know that their children will never be sent to fight only to burnish the personal credentials of the prime minister or defense minister. The memory of more than 20 soldiers killed on the final day of fighting in the Second Lebanon War with a cease-fire already set to go into effect so that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert could claim some sort of military achievement still burns. With Yaalon there were no such worries.
