http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068595.html MK to IDF chief: Fire Navy commander over strip club jaunt
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Tags: Israel News, Israel Navy
MK Nachman Shai (Kadima) on Wednesday urged Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi to dismiss Adm. Eliezer Marom after the Israel Navy commander was caught at a Tel Aviv strip club earlier in the week.
Shai, a former IDF spokesman, urged Ashkenazi to fire Marom for humiliating women at the club on Monday instead of setting a personal example. He said the officer's behavior was not in keeping with the accepted norms of the IDF.
On Tuesday, Ashkenazi gave Marom a verbal reprimand over the incident.
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According to the IDF Spokesman's Office, Marom told Ashkenazi he "was aware that the incident did not accord with what is expected of an officer of his rank, expressed regret that the incident had hurt the IDF's moral standing and apologized."
Ashkenazi then rebuked him verbally for behavior unbecoming an officer. Contrary to what many officers had expected, however, he did not post the reprimand in Marom's record.
Employees of the Go-Go Girls strippers club said Marom had been there several times before.
"He is a familiar face here. We thought he was a Chinese worker because he didn't come in uniform, and we didn't know he had a connection to the army," one said.The incident was the talk of the navy Tuesday, but no one was willing to comment on the record.
"Its certainly doesn't do us honor, and we just hope the story will blow over as soon as possible," a senior officer said, requesting anonymity. He noted that the navy was barely recovering from its humiliation during the Second Lebanon War, when a Hezbollah missile struck a naval warship due to what turned out to be negligence on the navy's part, and the latest scandal does not help the effort to rehabilitate its image.
"I don't understand [Marom]," another officer said. "He waited so long to get this job; he couldn't have waited until his three-year term was up before doing such a thing?"
An eyewitness told Haaretz that Marom came to the club by himself, in mufti, and stayed for about half an hour. That contradicts what Marom himself said - that he came to attend a friend's party. After the striptease, one of the strippers came over and danced with him, the witness said.
Koby Mizrachi, the club's owner, said he was furious that the story hit the press, as discretion is important to his club's success. Many famous people come to Go-Go, he said, but until now, the press has refrained from publishing their names. He added that he was thinking of suing.
Marom, 53, is a controversial figure in the navy. Though almost no one disputes his seamanship and operational abilities, some question his character. That is why, despite the fact that he had held virtually every senior post in the navy and presided over successful operations such as the capture of the Karine A arms smuggling ship in 2002, former navy chief Yedidya Be'eri opposed Marom's appointment as his replacement, resulting in David Ben-Besht getting the job instead.
Only after Ben-Besht was forced to resign following the Second Lebanon War did Marom finally get the coveted post. He was seen as the man who could rehabilitate the navy's operational capabilities. And in fact, senior IDF officers praised the navy's conduct during the recent fighting in Gaza. But now, the character issue has come to the fore again.
"No one should be surprised," said one former naval officer. "It is precisely because of things like this that he was passed over last time ... He doesn't have the proper moral character for a fleet commander."
This is not the first sexual scandal to hit the navy: In the late 1970s, then-commander of the navy Michael Barkai was charged with raping a female subordinate. He was ultimately acquitted due to doubt, but ousted as commander by then-defense minister Ezer Weizman.
Topic: Israeli Admiral caught in Strip club managers we thought he was Chinese worker (Read 1865 times)