The fact that the Kaplan demonstrators came out to violate the law as a show of support for Ami Eshed's boastful speech yesterday is the best proof that the Tel Aviv district commander should not have been appointed police commissioner and that it was necessary to end his term. Just as it may be, a police officer cannot spark a protest.
Imagine an IDF general, whom the chief of staff and defense minister asked to remove from his post, would convene a press conference for himself at a military base and attack the two.
Commissioner Ami Eshed retired from the police: "I was ousted on political grounds" // Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon
The fact that this can happen in the police indicates that contrary to Eshed's claims, the police are not in the pocket of one politician or another. With all due respect to Ashed and his many years of service, the members of the senior command staff are not disobedient to the authority of the ministers.
Not to be confused. Eshed's previous impeachment attempt did not bring honor to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and certainly not to Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, who rightly admitted that the act made him think of resigning from his position.
Failed to be wise and unjust
Eshed's speech yesterday was reminiscent of similar claims made at the time by then-acting police commissioner Moti Cohen. "I had to deal with attempts to interfere in police work," he said after the previous minister did not nominate him as police commissioner.
Ayalon demonstrations immediately after the declaration, photo by Yehoshua Yosef, Reuters
Those entrusted with enforcing the law are expected to have little humility. Enforcement is carried out not only against those who violate the law, but also and mainly so that normative citizens can live their lives undisturbed.
Eshed's view, it turns out, was one that took into account only the opponents of the reform, who, with all their identification with their principled and uncompromising struggle, have been harming the daily routine of citizens who think differently from them for weeks.
What is outrageous is Eshed's claim that he was ousted for political reasons. Shabtai and Ben-Gvir decided to remove him from office last March. In other words, had it not been for the publication of the round of appointments as an act of response to Ayalon's blockade, and if the Attorney General had not stopped his removal from his position, Eshed would probably have left the police in a minute's silence or served as head of the training division.
Next examinee. Commissioner Peretz Amar, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Eshed is not the first officer to have the dream of police commissioners explode in his face, and with all due respect to the leaders of the Kaplan Force, Eshed did not expose Ben-Gvir's plot to introduce the dictatorship into the Israel Police, but his weakness in implementing equal enforcement and his inability to be wise and unjust.
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