Security chief's skullcap stirs debate in Israel

The naming of an Orthodox Jew to head Israel's internal security service has touched off domestic tensions, with leftists seeing a boon for hardline West Bank settlers and a rabbi warning of anti-religious incitement.

Yoram Cohen, a former Shin Bet deputy director nominated for the top job on Monday, was commended across the political spectrum for professionalism in a career tracking suspected Palestinian militants, Lebanese guerrillas and Iranian agents.

Yet commentators focused on the fact Cohen, a graduate of a nationalist seminary, would be the first security chief to wear a skullcap -- badge of piety in the mostly secular Jewish state.

Cohen's rival for the promotion had, unlike him, overseen crackdowns on Israeli settlers suspected of anti-Arab violence designed to scupper any withdrawals from the occupied West Bank. Newspapers further reported that pro-settler rabbis had lobbied rightist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Shin Bet post.

Amir Oren, analyst for the liberal Haaretz daily, quoted an unnamed settler as saying Cohen would bring "pride to the community". Oren noted several recent Netanyahu appointments of senior Orthodox aides, including the national security adviser.

"They come from a religious background similar to Cohen's -- separate and unconnected dots that somehow line up," Oren wrote.

Pious Jews are a growing minority in Israel with an outsized representation among settlers, right-wing politics and combat units in the conscript military. The phenomenon often occasions secular soul-searching about the country's future character.

While the bulk of the Shin Bet's secret counter-espionage and counter-terrorism duties is aimed at Arabs, over the last two decades its "Jewish Division" has tackled pro-settler violence and in turn taken flak from Israeli ultranationalists.

Avi Dichter, a former Shin Bet director turned lawmaker for the centrist opposition, came out in support of Cohen and dismissed the idea he might be better disposed toward settlers.

"Whether or not you wear a skullcap doesn't interest the far-rightists. What interests them is whether you discern their violent, provocative and sometimes terrorist activity," he said.

"It doesn't matter what you have on your head -- skullcap or top-hat, or nothing. They will try to persecute you."

Rabbi Chaim Druckman, mentor for the settler movement, said he had spoken with Netanyahu about the Shin Bet succession but only to ensure "all worthy candidates" were being considered.

Interviewed on Israel Radio, Druckman cited Haaretz's commentary as an example of what he deemed liberal "incitement":

"The raising of suspicions in itself creates the suspect. They suspect that someone with a skullcap is ineligible because of his skullcap. That's how the wind is blowing in the country."

An Israeli official told Reuters the Cohen appointment was made "on a professional basis, with no outside interference".