By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Her entrance into politics was overshadowed by the return of former minister Benny Begin, but former IDF spokeswoman Brig.-Gen. (res) Miri Regev announced at a press conference with Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday that she would seek a place on the Likud's Knesset list.
Regev retired from the IDF last year following a two-year tenure as IDF spokeswoman in which she led the public relations campaigns during the Gaza Strip disengagement and the Second Lebanon War. She said that she could not reveal her political opinions while she was still a soldier, but that she actually opposed the disengagement, and that the destruction of synagogues was especially painful for her.
"The IDF must fulfill the commands of the diplomatic level," Regev told The Jerusalem Post. "It was hard for me to see the settlers continue to water the plants a minute before the disengagement and, as a traditional woman, to see synagogues evacuated. Looking back, [the disengagement] was not correct, because it is wrong to give land without receiving anything in return."
Regev said she had always agreed with the Likud's views since growing up in Kiryat Gat as the child of immigrants from Morocco. In her press conference, Regev said she would not seek a reserved slot on the Likud list. She expressed confidence that she would earn a slot in the primary that is set to be held the second week of December.
"After many disconcerting processes took place over the last few years in security, diplomatic and socioeconomic issues, Israel needs different leadership," Regev said. "Netanyahu is the only man who can lead Israel in the face of so many threats and challenges."
After months in which Netanyahu's then-spokesman Ophir Akooniss vigorously denied any interest in bringing Regev into the party, she said the Likud called her and Netanyahu asked her to run. Regev said she would concentrate on social issues if elected to the Knesset.
Regev was responsible for formulating and directing the IDF's "open media" policy during the Second Lebanon War. She came under particularly harsh criticism by the foreign press for centering much of her attention on the domestic media due to her lack of English.
She was also criticized for delays in the release of footage disproving claims that Israel had killed dozens of children in a July 2006 attack on a building in the Lebanese town of Kfar Kana that Hizbullah had fired from while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Israel. International pressure on Israel to end the war intensified after the incident.
Regev responded that four investigations into her office's operation during the war had not found any problem with its handling of the Kfar Kana attack. She said that Foreign Ministry studies found that the report had no impact on the outcome of the war.
"No one remembers Kfar Kana," Regev said. "We showed proof that Hizbullah was firing from populated areas, and we sent air force and intelligence officers to explain in English and Arabic that we do everything possible to avoid harming civilians. Wars look bad, and the IDF spokeswoman cannot change that fact."
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