Skip to main content

Moshe Ya'alon Will Bring Balance To Israeli Defense Ministry

Ben Caspit retraces the career of Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon, the expected choice for defense minister in the new Israeli government.
Moshe Yaalon the Chief of Staff of the Israeli army stands in front of the Warsaw Ghetto monument, May 18, 2005. Yaalon is in Warsaw for one day working visit. The memorial is a 1948 tribute to the heroic struggle of Warsaw's doomed Jews and the resistance fighters who helped the 450,000 persons packed into the Warsaw Ghetto by the Nazis during World War Two. REUTERS/Katarina Stoltz  KS/AA - RTRBLDC
Read in 

Shortly before the Knesset elections of 2006, Ada Ya’alon mailed a personal letter to dozens of her friends. It was a long missive of about 3,000 words, philosophical, ideological and incisive. She wanted to convince her friends, almost all kitbbutz members and part of Israel’s historical Labor movement, “to transcend the psychological barrier” and not vote for Kadima or the Labor Party in the upcoming elections. She tried to persuade them to commit the inconceivable and vote Likud. She explained fervently and at length what had happened to the Israeli left over the past few decades, and how it had fallen captive to the impractical, utopian idea of a permanent peace with the Arabs. By doing so, she explained, the left had sacrificed its real, humanistic values, such as women's and minority rights.

Ada Ya’alon is the wife of Moshe Ya’alon, Israel's vice prime minister, minister of Strategic Affairs and former military chief of staff. Barring any dramatic last-minute changes, he will also be the next defense minister of the State of Israel. Ada's disillusionment happened even earlier to her husband Moshe, and what happened to the Ya’alons happened to large swathes of Israel’s historic peace camp.

Access the Middle East news and analysis you can trust

Join our community of Middle East readers to experience all of Al-Monitor, including 24/7 news, analyses, memos, reports and newsletters.

Subscribe

Only $100 per year.