With the Likud expected to win the next national elections, which may be held as early the coming months, ex-Police Commissioner Assaf Hefetz has become the latest public figure to jump on the party bandwagon.
In other political news, the Knesset has a new hareidi-religious Knesset Member: Uri Maklev (see below).
Hefetz says he wants to become the country's next Public Security Minister. To this end, he says he will join the party and run for a slot on the Likud's list of Knesset candidates - noting running for the Knesset is only a means to be able to oversee Israel Police from a government position.
Speaking with Army Radio, Hefetz said he met with Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, and "we found that that we agree in principle and in ideology on the guidelines for the struggle for personal security for Israeli citizens." This, despite their disagreements when the two served in the mid-90's as Prime Minister and Police Commissioner, respectively.
Assaf Hefetz was Israel's 12th Police Commissioner, from 1994-1998. He lost his hearing in one ear, and was awarded a certificate of valour, for his actions during a battle with terrorists in the Coastal Road massacre in March 1978.
Hefetz and Bar-Lev
Hefetz reportedly wants to name Uri Bar-Lev as Israel's next Police Commissioner, when the term of the incumbent Dudu Cohen ends. Bar-Lev was a top police commander overseeing the expulsion of the Jewish residents from Gush Katif in 2005.
Dayan Joined a Month Ago
Just a month ago, ex-National Security Advisor Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan announced that he was joining the Likud party, though reactions in the party were mixed. Moshe Feiglin, for instance, head of the Likud's Jewish Leadership faction, said Dayan's strong left-wing leanings disqualify him from Likud membership. Dayan favors the establishment of a Palestinian state, and headed the Israeli delegation for security talks with the Palestinian Authority in the framework of the Oslo II talks in the early 1990's. In 2003, Dayan included this fact in his official biography - but the current version of his biography omits this fact.
Dayan started a party named Tafnit (Turnabout), which strongly favored the speedy construction of the partition/wall separating most of Judea and Samaria from the rest of Israel, and Israels' abandonment of most small and/or isolated Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
Netanyahu reportedly promised Dayan either the Defense or Education Ministry portfolios, depending on the availability of the former based on coalition necessities.
Likud Members Complain
In response to complaints by high-ranking Likud members that "Netanyahu is giving away all the top positions and leaving us nothing," both Netanyahu and Hefetz later denied that Hefetz had been promised anything.
New Hareidi MK
In other political news, the Knesset has a new hareidi-religious Knesset Member: Uri Maklev, a former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem and a member of the United Torah Judaism party. He assumed his position last week after Yaakov Cohen resigned, in keeping with an agreement made before the last elections between Cohen's Agudat Yisrael faction and Maklev's Degel HaTorah faction. The two factions together comprise the United Torah Judaism party.
Maklev was sworn in last Wednesday, and received an admiring welcome from Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik (Labor). As he strode quickly up to the podium, she said to him, "No need to walk so fast; take it calmly." He then answered, "I heard that people run for the Knesset," and Itzik broke out in laughter. She then said that though she did not know him personally, she had heard much praise of his hard-working and friendly nature.
