Moshe Ya'alon, A Pawn or Player?

Ariel Hermoni /
Israeli Defense Ministry via EPA

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon was in hot water for telling the truth, and now he's in boiling water for apologizing.  Simply put, no matter what he does, there will be condemnation.  Many Israelis cheered when Ya'alon said what we've been thinking and saying for a long time.  We wondered how long those words would stay "live," and we're still wondering how long he'll keep his job.

Dry Bones

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu runs a tight ship.  He makes the decisions, and he decides just how far his coalition can go. Many people had expected Bibi to appoint Ya'alon as Defense Minister for his second (this is now the third) term as Prime Minister, but he took the Leftist Ehud Barak. In that government coalition Avigdor Lieberman as Foreign Minister would throw out the "extreme Right" statements, sort of testing the wind.  Now Lieberman has changed his tune and sounds almost to the Left of Peres at times.

Could it be that this whole "crisis" has been choreographed by Binyamin Netanyahu himself?   Or is it more accurate to call it an example of Netanyahu's chess playing tactics?  (I still consider myself a dancer, so choreograph would be the word, but since Bibi is a chess player...)

Gelfand with Netanyahu and Livnat (Photo: Moshe Milner, GPO)

And let's go back to the big question.  Does Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon really have power and influence?  Many on Israel's pro-Jewish rights in all of the Land of Israel Right have been counting on Ya'alon's power, position, influence to protect the State of Israel from endangering itself.

• Does PM Netanyahu have any real advisors? 
• To whom does Netanyahu go to for advice?
• Does the cabinet, the coalition have any say in security policy?
• Does Bibi have the guts to call off further American brokered mediated PRESSURED talks when it's so obvious that U.S. President Obama and his Secretary of State Kerry want us to accept P.A. Arab terrorist demands which will weaken Israel to the point of destruction?

Plaques awarded to terrorists show map of "Palestine" erasing Israel
Palestinian Media Watch