It was one of those things that while not technically illegal was as the editor of the Salt Lake City Tribune once said, “much like drinking water from a toilet bowl, dumb, distasteful and when observed embarrassing.” A land grab cost Maj. General Yoav Galant the top job in Israel’s Army and a reputation earned over more than 3 decades of military service. Like a lot of scandals it started with something that was unsavory behavior; the actual nail in the coffin was lying about it.

Essentially, a few years ago, he built a big very fancy house, a parking lot, and some other stuff on a large plot of land. Only problem is he didn’t technically own all of the land. According to reports here he exploited a very complicated part of Israeli law that allowed him build on the land 2-years-ago the media picked up the story but it was confusing and nobody really cared. The government however launched an investigation into what happened and according to the Special Prosecutor in the case Galant lied. Again nobody said much until Defense Minister Ehud Barak appointed Galant “Chief of Staff,” the Israeli Military’s top job. The media went crazy looking into exactly what happened with that house, the land, and the parking lot. How could someone have the Military’s top job who couldn’t tell the truth about his house? Nobody had a good answer for that and finally the Prime Minister stepped in and pulled the nomination.

Now comes a major problem. Galant was supposed to take office February 14th. The current Chief of Staff has to leave February 14th. That wouldn’t be a huge problem ordinarily but right now isn’t an ordiary time in the Middle East. On Israel’s southern boarder the Jewish State’s most important ally, Egypt, is descending into chaos. On the Northern border, Hezbollah just took over Lebanon and to the East King Abdullah is fighting to keep control of Jordan. 12 days from now Israel’s Military will be leaderless. Either problem isn’t good but combining the crisis in the Middle East and the crisis of not being able to simply tell the truth has Israel in a rather precarious stop. Of course, Barak could take over, he is a military hero, as is his boss the Prime Minister but this isn’t wartime, yet, so they named a new guy. They are going to the bench, pulling out from retirement the General that Barak passed over when he named his friend Galant as Chief of Staff. Wonder what his house looks like?