Former Navy Commander Avraham Ben-Shoshan resigned this morning (Sunday) from his membership in the State Commission of Inquiry into the "Vessel Affair."
Ben-Shoshan justified the resignation on personal grounds, and the committee said that it had begun searching for someone to replace him.
It is doubtful whether Ben-Shoshan's departure will have much effect on the committee's work, for the simple reason that it does not function in any case.
Half a year has passed since the government decided to set up the committee headed by Judge Grunis - and it will be immediately told how this happened - but it has not held a single working meeting.
This is not the case.
As written in the pages on the day the committee was formed, its action was doomed to failure because its mandate was crooked.
"Section 2B of the Government's decision states that 'the Commission shall not investigate the conduct of defendants in criminal proceedings, nor shall it make findings, conclusions or recommendations in their case.' "The submarine affair, will not appear before it ?! This, by the way, is the reason why Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit opposed the establishment of a commission of inquiry over the years. He wanted to exhaust the legal proceedings earlier. So the main thing is missing from the book," January 2022.
After taking on the role, the esteemed committee members realized that this mine was very difficult to overcome.
This is the main reason why the committee is not operating so far, and perhaps also what led Ben-Shoshan to retire.
He may have realized that they used his name not to get to the truth, but for political motives, since politics underlies the establishment of the committee, and an act that was, so it was.
Demonstration outside the cabinet meeting to establish a committee of inquiry into the submarine affair (archive), Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
In early January, after the possibility of a plea deal was announced in the Netanyahu trial, Prime Minister Bennett was under pressure.
He was so stressed that he urgently addressed his party leaders, Yair Lapid, Bnei Gantz, Gideon Saar Lieberman, and suggested that already at the next cabinet meeting, the government decide on the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the submarine affair.
It was Friday.
Ganz and Lapid were surprised.
Although Ganz ran in the committee with the formation of the government, he cooled down after Bennett was denied by Bennett.
At the same time, the bitter hostility between Ganz and Netanyahu cooled, so he left the submarine committee issue - but for both Ganz and Lapid, the submarine investigation committee was promising a flag, and from the moment Bennett informed the two that Friday that he was raising the issue at the cabinet meeting. The two had no choice.
He sandals them to a subject they could not refuse.
Thus were born the unusual and joint public announcements on Friday (!) That the government would approve the establishment of the commission of inquiry.
Bennett's bureau also received a request from the heads of other parties.
He demanded that a message of support be sent to him for the establishment of an urgent commission of inquiry.
"The Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Foreign Affairs are supportive. Please attach your public support," the party leaders were told.
It was a Friday afternoon, very unusual hours to deal with an urgent matter, which had been waiting on the cabinet table for months.
Still the pressure from Bennett did not stop and his men demanded texts and fast.
Bennett did not give up and resorted to a dirtier exercise.
An hour before Shabbat began, "a joint statement was issued to Defense Minister Bnei Gantz and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid: A state commission of inquiry into the submarine and vessel affair will go up for government approval on Sunday."
Bennett, after raising Lapid and Gantz on the tree, descended from it with feline agility.
Behind the scenes he pushed the committee with all his might.
Outwardly, dodged.
After a few more minutes, it became clear that on that Sunday the government in general was prevented from approving the establishment of the committee for procedural reasons, which Bennett also eagerly skipped over to establish the committee immediately.
After a week, Gantz, Lapid and the party leaders expected another surprise in the government.
Bennett, who as mentioned initiated the establishment of the commission of inquiry, abstained from voting in the government, while his ally, Ayelet Shaked, objected.
Half a year after she was born in sin, the submarine committee and quite not by chance, drowns itself.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
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