Election of Israel’s state comptroller turning political
For Giora Romm, the Blue and White party made no real effort to promote his candidacy for the position of state comptroller and did not try to mobilize other opposition parties for the vote.
The Knesset chose Israel’s new state comptroller on June 3. It was the last decision by the Knesset before dispersing ahead of the Sept. 17 elections. Coalition candidate Matanyahu Engelman was chosen for the job, defeating Blue and White’s candidate, Maj. Gen. (ret) Giora Romm.
Two days later, Romm was interviewed by the Army Radio; it was an emotional interview that generated quite a few headlines. He drew a comparison between the leadership of the Blue and White party and the military unit that featured in the Israeli cult film “Halfon Hill Doesn’t Answer.” Romm said this was the image that popped into his head when he realized he may be the opposition’s candidate, but that he was setting out alone in this losing battle.
Beyond his less than flattering depiction of the inner workings of the Blue and White party and its four leaders, the glimpse that Romm offered of the way the Knesset functions can hardly be considered a source of pride for any of its current members. It is truly rare that someone enters the system for such a brief time yet manages to describe the mechanism’s inner workings with such clarity.
The whole state comptroller election story may have lasted less than two weeks, but in his time as the opposition’s candidate for state comptroller, Romm saw the Knesset in all its failings. He will not be the next state comptroller, but his penetrating comments are an important document that will resound far beyond his amusing anecdote about “Halfon Hill.”
