Meretz MK Zahava Gal-On said Sunday that Israel’s failures in the Second Lebanon War were linked to corruption charges against the government. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appointed Labor head Amir Peretz as Defense Minister despite his lack of an appropriate background for the position in order to keep the Finance Ministry under his own control, she suggested.

“There was no reason for Olmert to appoint Amir Peretz as Defense Minister, and thus to abandon Israel’s security, if not to keep the finance portfolio in the hands of his supporters,” she said. Olmert’s Finance Ministry appointee, Avraham Hirschson, stepped down last year due to charges of theft, money laundering, and embezzlement.