Peretz views the world through capped binoculars

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz, who has been accused of incompetence in the past, was caught viewing a training exercise through capped binoculars. In Ha'aretz, Gideon Levy comments that the storm of criticism this raised is due to prejudice against non-Ashkenazy Jews. Actually it is probably prejudice against defense ministers who lose wars and can't use binoculars.


Everybody should have a chance to be defense minister, regardless of ethnic origin, intelligence quotient, esperience or aptitude, right? This can create a trend: Language teachers who cannot spell, Mathematics professors who cannot solve equations, finance ministers who cannot add and subtract...

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Israeli Defense Minister Inspects War Moves Through Capped Binoculars

Friday, February 23, 2007

AP

Feb. 21: Israel's Defense Minister Amir Peretz, right, looks through binoculars without realizing the plastic lens-caps were left on.

Israel's beleaguered minister of defense was blinded by criticism over photos taken of him watching military maneuvers through binoculars with the lens caps still on.

Various newspapers published photos of the in-the-dark Amir Peretz peering through the dysfunctional binoculars during an inspection of Israeli troops in the Syria-bordering Golan Heights, the BBC reported.

Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi pointed out the war moves and explained them to Peretz, who looked through the capped device three times and nodded, according to the BBC, even though all he saw was black.

"The outlook is dark for Peretz," joked top-selling daily Yediot Aharonot.

Photographs splashed across Israel's two major newspapers on Thursday, showed Peretz, lips set in concentration, face tilted to the light and eyes glued to binoculars ... with their black lens caps still firmly on.

Alongside him, his right-hand man, Ashkenazi, kitted out in battle dress, expertly adjusts his own binoculars to watch troops going through their paces on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Peretz, a former trade union chief whose own military experience is limited to national service, has been vilified in Israel for his perceived mishandling of last year's war in Lebanon.

A vast majority of Israelis want him to resign from the defense ministry on the grounds of chronic incompetence and military inexperience.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.