Israelis witnessed two scenes on Saturday evening that they don’t often see.
The first was Tel Aviv district police chief Ami Eshed being cheered as he waded through a crowd of protesters demonstrating by the tens of thousands for the 10th week in a row against the judicial reform.
Think about that for a minute. Demonstrators applauded, not booing or yelling, at the local police chief. How often does that happen?
The second scene took place a few kilometers away in front of the Tel Aviv demonstration at police headquarters. There, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai held a press conference and said four words rarely uttered by senior public officials: “I made a mistake.” How often does that happen?
Nobody likes to say they made a mistake. If you don’t admit a mistake, there is always the chance that you can blame someone else or otherwise talk your way out of it. Admit the error; you own it, and it may hound you forever.
There was something refreshing -- perhaps because it is so unusual -- in Shabtai’s admission.
Ben-Gvir's involvement
And to what mistake did Shabtai admit? To the timing of the announcement of a new round of police appointments that will take place at the end of April after Ramadan.
With Shabtai's approval, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced precisely on the day of the large protest in Tel Aviv on Thursday that Eshed would be demoted to the head of the Police Training Center. Ben-Gvir acknowledged in interviews on Saturday and Sunday that the demotion was due to displeasure over the way Eshed has handled the massive protests in Tel Aviv over the last 10 weeks.
Ben-Gvir wants to see much more aggressive police action against protesters when they move to block main traffic arteries. This explains why Eshed was applauded by the demonstrators Saturday night – he has opted to use a “softer” approach.
“I made a mistake. I made an error of judgment, I was wrong in the timing and in the manner in which it was done. I do not take that lightly,” Shabtai said of the announcement of Eshed’s dismissal. He noticeably did not append any “buts” to this mea culpa, such as, “I made a mistake, but it was really Ben-Gvir who made me do it.”
Eshed’s ouster on Thursday evening, and then Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara’s immediate questioning of its legality and freezing the move, and then Ben-Gvir’s angry response to the attorney-general, and then Shabtai’s admission of having made an error creates the public perception of chaos inside the police.
And it is chaos at a most inopportune time: when hundreds of thousands of people continue taking to the streets in protest and Palestinian terrorists continue to strike.
At times like this, what is needed is a focused police that have confidence and trust their leadership and whom the public believes are acting professionally.
Adding to the perception that there is something woefully wrong with the police are the letters and statements from former police commissioners and senior officers praising Eshed and slamming Shabtai for what they charge is his inability to stand up to Ben-Gvir, and for what they claim is the minister’s politicization of the force.
Somebody needs to step in and make order. Somebody needs to make clear to Ben-Gvir that while as the minister in charge of the police he can set overarching policy, the police are not his own personal fiefdom with which he can do whatever he sees fit – there is a process and procedure that needs to be followed.
Somebody needs to step in and make it clear to the national security minister that – as the British say – certain things are “simply not done.” One of those things not done is sacking a police chief in the middle of two ongoing crises – the large-scale protests and the uptick in terror – in such a way as it appears to be politically motivated.
That somebody, obviously, is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Before the government was sworn into office in late December, Netanyahu sought to reassure allies abroad concerned about the hard-right and ultra-Orthodox composition of the government that they need not be worried because he has “both hands on the wheel.”
Right now – with the top police brass quibbling, with Ben-Gvir and the attorney-general essentially at war, with the lines blurred between a minister’s setting overall policy direction and interfering in the day-to-day operation and judgment of the officers in command – is the time for Netanyahu to grab hold of that wheel and set the police on a steady course.
Otherwise, the growing sense that things in the country are spinning out of control will only deepen. While it was refreshing to hear Shabtai admit that he made a mistake, it will take much more than that to restore a sense among the public that matters inside the police top command are running as they should.