I don't know if there is any truth to the reports that the public security minister in the next government will have more powers over the police. Former Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan once told me that when he held that portfolio he demanded that then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amend the law on that matter, but it never happened.
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Politically biased enforcement can deal a devastating blow to democracy and the legitimacy of uniformed officers. The problem is that the general public is no longer interested in the discourse on Israel's democratic character. Even the unthinkable void of not appointing a permanent police commissioner for two years didn't elicit a public outcry.
There were those "crazies" like me who talked about this in the media and in various professional forums, but I could not sense there being any real public pressure, even when politicians tried to use the appointment as part of the haggling in various political deals.
When I meet with educators, even civics teachers, I am shocked by how much ignorance there is on the basic chain of command and whom the commissioner reports to. The answers people provide are just embarrassing, and the vast majority of respondents are unaware that although the chief of staff of the IDF reports to the defense minister, the heads of the Mossad and the Shin Bet security service report ot the prime minister, and that the police commissioner is accountable only to the law.
Even when the lines became blurred by then-Public Security Minister Amir Ohana when he meddled in appointments within the police ranks – including by tapping people who lacked the necessary skills – there was silence in the general public. Now, when likely public security portfolio will go to someone who boasts about police officers kowtowing to him, it all but confirms the massive damage inflicted on the police force in those years.
The public apathy can be explained because it has been told that the biggest problem they face is the lack of personal security and that therefore the government must get more "governability", which according to this narrative means more meddling of politicians in the affairs of the "bureaucrats."
What no one told the public is that personal security and national strength have actually been compromised because of this very interference in how the police do its job. No one told the public that the Netanyahu government made sure to slash the budgets for law-enforcement activities by hundreds of millions of shekels, including by ending the massive effort to crack down on crime in Arab communities.
It also ended the implementation of a six-year plan the police has already signed off on and cut the presence of bobbies on the beat and essentially destroyed the technological apparatus that had been built.
The ethnic riots that took place amidst the Gaza flare-up in 2021, known as Operation Guardian of the Walls, were a direct consequence of this neglect. This lack of resources is what allowed the radicals in the Islamic Movement to rear their heads despite being outlawed, including by resuming their malign influence on the Temple Mount provocateurs and their collaboration with crime syndicates.
I hope the new minister will enlist experts on criminology and internalize that policing requires direct outreach to minorities and other communities. Any other approach will only erode the public's sense of security. If personal security is important, it's better to realize this before things descend into chaos.
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