Wow! From Kadima MK to government minister and deciding vote on Iran nuclear strike
In one fell swoop, former General Security Service chief Avi Dichter went from being a Kadima MK with negligible influence to being a minister in the Netanyahu government and the potentially deciding vote in a cabinet poll on striking Iran. In return, he gave up his Knesset seat. Dichter, a former colleague of Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak in Sayeret Matkal, the most elite of Israel's elite army units, may now hold the power to decide when and whether Israel will go it alone in attacking Iran. Kadima MK Avi Dichter on Monday night went from opposition legislator to the man who could decide whether Israel takes military action against Iran when he agreed to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s request to become home front defense minister.Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz, who was also briefly part of Sayeret Matkal with the others, ridiculed Dichter's move, but Dichter was more than a mentch to his former colleagues in Kadima.
Dichter will become the ninth member of Netanyahu’s inner security cabinet, which political sources say was evenly divided until now on the Iranian issue. Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz are thought be in favor of a strike if sanctions do not work and if the United States does not take action.
Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, and Minister-without- Portfolio Bennie Begin are said to be opposed to such a step and to favor giving the US more time to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
Dichter’s associates said he was completely undecided on the issue and would learn more about it before making a decision. They denied reports on both sides trying to paint him in one direction or the other, and noted that his past statements on the issue were noncommittal.
Dichter’s associates said he insisted on quitting his Knesset seat and joining the government as a professional appointee so he would not harm Kadima. They said he could have taken seven Kadima MKs with him but decided it would be undemocratic.I suspect that so many people turned it down because if God forbid there is a war with Iran, the position is going to be a thankless one. What could go wrong?
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Dichter will replace outgoing Home Front Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i, who will leave next week for Beijing to be Israel’s next ambassador to China.
His seat in Knesset will be filled by the next name on Kadima list of Knesset candidates, Arab vote contractor and Mofaz loyalist Ahmed Dabbah.
Ministers Meridor, Begin, Michael Eitan and Yossi Peled turned down the Home Front Defense portfolio, as did former minister Tzachi Hanegbi, former MK Danny Yatom and former IDF deputy chief of staff Uzi Dayan.
Labels: Avi Dichter, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:39 PM
1 Comments:
Obama is so venal that he might decide to do something about Iran's nukes only if he concludes that he will otherwise lose the election. In his heart he probably wants Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. His only deeply held principles are the wrong ones.
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