Yaalon Says Politicians Know: To Be Coddled, Go Left

Former IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon accuses the media of protecting politicians who adopt left-wing policies.

In an interview with Army Radio on Sunday morning, Yaalon said, "Politicians have learned that if they go towards steps such as disengagement, convergence [i.e., withdrawal from Judea and Samaria], and folding, then the central current of public dialogue - and I'm talking chiefly about the media - will raise them up."

Yaalon was the Chief of Staff from 2002 until 2005. Then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz did not extend Yaalon's three-year term, in a departure from custom, and he concluded his term in June 2005, just 11 weeks before the expulsion/withdrawal from Jewish Gaza began. Yaalon had expressed some opposition to the plan.

"The phrase 'to etrog a politician' [meaning, to treat him very protectively, as one does with an etrog fruit during the Sukkot holiday] is not something I made up," Yaalon said. "It was made up by a journalist [Amnon Abramovitch]. I call upon some of those who are thought to be leading journalists - and there is no small degree of corruption there [in the media] that, I feel, causes politicians to understand that if they want to be 'etrog-ed' and 'forgiven' in matters of substance and professional failures, it’s a good idea for them to take certain approaches."

Without ever mentioning Prime Minister Olmert's name, Yaalon said, "I definitely think we are now in a similar instance."