600 Days of War: Our Leadership Has Failed Us

Today marks 600 days of the continuing war with Hamas that started as a response to October 7, 2023’s worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust when over 1,200 of our fellow citizens were attacked, raped, beaten, and ultimately slaughtered by crazed Gazans.

Yet, after 600 days of war, the fact that…..

• …the most powerful military force in the Middle East has not concluded this war even now is proof that our leadership has failed us.
• …after Gaza has been laid waste, that thousands of residents there have been killed, and that Hamas still has the capability to launch missiles at Israel as they did earlier this week is proof that our leadership has failed us.
• …after the death in battle of almost 1,000 members of our military along with tens of thousands of reservists who left their families and jobs to protect us, yet we still have not concluded this war is proof that our leadership has failed us.
• …59 of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7^th remain in Gaza with probably 39 of them no longer alive and the other 20 barely alive after 600 days of captivity is proof that our leadership has failed us.
• …in spite of our successful efforts to alter the balance of power in the Middle East by neutralizing Hizballah, defanging Iran’s defenses, and damaging the Houthi’s infrastructure if we are still fighting Hamas that, too, in spite of our successes, is proof that our leadership has failed us.

It is difficult and painful to admit but the war grinds on mainly because it seems to serve the political survival of our prime minister. Any doubt about that was dispelled by his first press conference in five months last week, where he re-emphasized his intent to continue fighting until Hamas is fully routed and all the hostages are returned. In addition, he added a new condition, support for President Trump’s impractical proposal that Gaza be depopulated and replaced by unnamed residents of a “beautiful” riviera built by the United States.

Add to all of this our growing international isolation, the deep societal rifts here at home, and our resultant economic decline, one can only conclude that our leadership has failed us.

Can we find an optimistic next step that will move us forward?  After all, the ballot box will not help us as elections are not scheduled until the end of 2026.  Even if we were able to limp along until then there is no guarantee that the government would change.

No!  The only way forward would be for the Prime Minister to be the leader he purports to be, admit that continuing the status quo will not lead us anywhere but will inflict more damage on all of us, take responsibility for the failures of the past (and credit for the successes as there have been many of those as well) and chart a new course.

To do that the Prime Minister may very well lose his coalition, he may even end up back in court and not be found innocent of the charges against him.  But if he changes course, ends the war now, brings the hostages home and convinces our regional friends in the Arab World to form a coalition to rebuild and manage Gaza for some years until it can be stabilized, he will go down the same path as others who made ideological shifts for the good and welfare of the state.

Former US President Richard Nixon made such a move by going to China, Anwar Sadat did the same when he approached us asking to visit Israel, and even South Africa’s F.W. DeKlerk, an arch
“apartheidnik” guided the country to integration.  That’s the kind of disruptive leadership that we here need now!!

Today is the first day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, the month in which, on Monday, we will celebrate the holiday of Shavuot which, according to tradition, celebrates Moses’ return to the people after his sojourn with God and the giving of the Law to the Jewish people assembled at the base of Mt. Sinai.

The sources tell us that there was a glow around the face of Moses when he descended from the mountain, a glow that perhaps signified his change from the leader that brought our ancestors out of Egyptian bondage and would now lead them into the promised land, the land of Israel.

Let us hope that Prime Minister Netanyahu will be so impacted by the holiday of Shavuot and thus change from being the leader who bought us into war to the one who brings us out of war and into a new beginning for the land to which we here are all committed with our lives, our souls and our loved ones.  We deserve nothing less from a leadership that, until now, ha failed us.