“I really hope that there’s nothing here. I don’t know what happened, but I do know one thing: We must investigate it,” said Knesset member Yoav Kisch of Likud when the Knesset’s Interior Committee, which he heads, voted to create a parliamentary committee of inquiry to investigate the Gal Hirsch affair.

Brig. Gen. Hirsch resigned from the military after the Second Lebanon War (2006). He then went on to establish his own security consulting firm and also headed the Israel Leadership Institute. He was nominated to be police commissioner on Aug. 25, 2015, but his appointment was officially withdrawn almost a month later, on Sept. 23, because of a criminal investigation into his affairs.

Twenty-four hours after Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan announced Hirsch’s appointment, Erdan had learned that Hirsh was the target of a police investigation, including on the suspicion that he and his company had paid bribes to a Georgian minister to advance various arms deals. The investigation is still open three years after the episode made headlines, with recent reports claiming that it is about to be concluded.

The Hirsch case took an interesting turn on Aug. 5, when recordings were released allegedly proving that Assistant Commissioner Manny Yitzhaki, head of the Department of Police Investigations, had been taking steps to push an investigation of Hirsch forward after Hirsch was appointed. The question on everybody’s mind three years ago was, if allegedly damaging intelligence collected against Hirsch was already in the system, why did the police open an investigation into Hirsch only after he became the nominee for police commissioner? Everyone now realizes that this should have been recognized as a serious warning signal. Is there any truth to accusations against the police that they are blocking appointments and abusing intelligence? Why are these charges only now being thoroughly investigated?