Don’t expect much of Bibi
Op-ed: Expecting weak leader like Netanyahu to make strategic decisions is ridiculous
Leadership is an elusive quality. For hundreds of years, humanity has been trying to understand what makes up leadership and what turns a person into a leader. One of the customary ways to cope with the complex definition of a certain phenomenon is to describe the opposite.
Indeed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a living and breathing definition of lacking leadership. Observing his current term in office could have been a fascinating experience, had this farce not been conducted at our expense.
A month ago, Netanyahu’s foreign minister exploited the platform given to him at the United Nations General Assembly in order to turn the State of Israel’s policy into a joke. The prime minister’s response was summed up with an anxious message issued by his office: “The speech was not coordinated with us.”
However, that wasn’t the question. The question was what Netanyahu thinks about Lieberman’s speech and what he intends to do about it. This question remained unanswered.
When the scandal about the income supplements to yeshiva students emerged, Netanyahu lamented that this was an inheritance left over by his predecessors. So what? A leader’s mission is to change reality when he has the opportunity to do so.
And speaking of inheritances, Netanyahu actually received a gift that none of his predecessors had: An unequivocal High Court ruling that rejects ongoing income supplements. Yet his solution, in the face of the public and political outcry, was to establish a committee.
A few weeks ago, Netanyahu established another committee. It happened when he reached an important economic crossroads: The needs to boost our economic competitiveness in the face of the absolute control exercised by five families over the Israeli economy. Dramatic recommendations on behalf of the Treasury and Bank of Israel were placed on his table, yet Netanyahu evaded them.
Earlier, when the gravesite scandal emerged last year in the area earmarked for building a new emergency room in Ashkelon, the prime minister also established a committee.
Netanyahu a coward
The establishment of committees was known as a trick used by Mapai, the Labor Party’s predecessor; so maybe Netanyahu is the last Mapainik? Well, not at all. For Mapai members, who built this country, this tactic was perceived as a pragmatic tool: Establishing a committee in order to bridge differences and act on the basis of consensus. Meanwhile, Netanyahu establishes committee in order to evade responsibility.
Nobody really knows what Netanyahu thinks about issues on the agenda, either small or large. The thought that an anti-leader of this type would be able to lead Israel to undertake strategic decisions is ludicrous.
Today, it’s clear that Levi Eshkol, the classic Mapainic and David Ben-Gurion’s successor, was among the best prime ministers to ever serve in Israel. However, while he was in power, they used to joke about the hesitancy attributed to him. One joke recounted how a waiter asked the prime minister whether he wanted coffee or tea. In response, Eshkol asked whether he can have half of each. Yet if someone would ask Netanyahu today whether he wants coffee or tea, he’ll likely establish a committee.
As a citizen, I am willing to bow my head to a prime minister who advances views that contradict my own. After all, this is part of the democratic game. Yet what outrages me is a prime minister who’s a coward.
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