Moshe Ya'alon: "To Be Coddled, Go Left"

	Moshe Ya'alon, former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff.

The former chief of staff of Israel's defense forces, Moshe Ya'alon, has come out and said explicitly what everyone knows about politicians and what no one normally dares say. As Arutz Sheva sums up his advice in its headline: "To Be Coddled, Go Left."

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. … 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. 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 mentioning Prime Minister Ehud Olmert by name, Ya'alon added, "I definitely think we are now in a similar instance."

Comment: The coddling, or "etrogging," of leftist politicians is hardly something unique to Israel. Will politicians on the right in other countries dare follow Ya'alon's example and speak up about this double standard? (November 25, 2007)