Knowing When it’s Time to Go

There are not many lessons Israeli politicians should be taking from Keir Starmer’s time as UK Prime Minister. His tenure was marked by weak leadership, uninspiring policies, and an inability to translate promises into meaningful results. Yet as his premiership comes to an end, Starmer has demonstrated one quality that is increasingly absent from Israeli politics, the willingness to step aside.

In British politics, resignation is not viewed as weakness. It is viewed as accountability. When leaders lose elections, they generally leave. When they become embroiled in crisis or scandal, they leave their jobs. When ministers fundamentally disagree with their party leader, they resign. It is a way of accepting responsibility, making a statement, and showing that principles matter more than titles.

We’ve seen it time and again. Leaders such as Boris Johnson, Theresa May, Rishi Sunak, Ed Miliband and even Jeremy Corbin all accepted that political failure carries consequences. Their careers may continue in different forms, but they understood that leadership is not a lifetime entitlement.

In Israel, the opposite culture has taken hold. No one resigns. No one accepts responsibility. Electoral defeats are always someone else’s fault. Policy failures are blamed on coalition partners, the media, the bureaucracy, the courts, or political opponents. Everyone is a victim and nobody is accountable.

The result is a political system trapped in a perpetual merry-go-round, with the same faces rotating from one position to another regardless of performance. MK Hili Tropper from Blue and White didn’t like that his party leader Beni Ganz is below the threshold so rather than resigning and giving his seat back to the party he has decided to look for an alternative political home while keeping his current seat. Minister Gila Gamliel went to synagogue during COVID lockdowns and got everyone sick and not even an apology let alone a resignation. Police recently recommended indictments against Minister May Golan for allegations including various degrees of corruption offenses and yet nothing, not even a hint of remorse or willingness to take responsibility. Meanwhile Yair Lapid has lost every election since entering the Knesset and yet has never considered stepping aside.

Every election brings promises of change, yet the cast remains remarkably familiar. Politicians who have already failed are recycled. Parties are renamed, rebranded, merged, and split apart, but the people at the top rarely change. New ideas struggle to emerge because the old guard refuses to leave the stage.

When we talk about fixing Israeli politics, the answer is not to keep electing politicians who have already had their chance. Nor is it to place our hopes in leaders who have spent decades proving they cannot deliver.

Real change comes from bringing forward new people, new ideas, serious policy built on genuine thought and study and a renewed commitment to public service rather than self-service. Politics should not be a career for life, nor is it the retirement plan for former generals. It should be a period of public service, not an exercise in personal ambition.

Keir Starmer is not leaving office with a glowing legacy. He will be remembered as one of Britain’s worst Prime Ministers, but at least he understands a simple democratic principle, when you lose the public faith, when you lose support, when you lose credibility, it is time to go. If only more Israeli politicians were capable of reaching the same conclusion.