We need stability and hope

After three and a half years, Kobi Shabtai completed his term earlier this week as Commissioner of Israel’s Police. His boss, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister of National Security was absent from the ceremony.

In his departing speech Shabtai warned: “We must not make the police political – that is how we lose public legitimacy and lose our right to exist.” The primary role of a police force in any democracy is to uphold the law. It is not there at the beck and call of any politician as is the case in a dictatorship.

Although Shabtai did not name Ben-Gvir specifically, everyone knows that their professional relationship was not an easy one given the latter’s efforts to use the police as a tool to serve his own ends.

As if that were not enough, it is now over nine months since Esther Hayut completed her  six-year term as President of Israel’s Supreme Court. Because of political interests, her successor has yet to be appointed, something that should have taken place prior to her retirement in order to ensure a smooth succession and maintain stability and order.

Since October 7, no less than twenty-five illegal outposts have been established on the West Bank, but no effort has been made to dismantle them.

The rule of law is an essential component of any stable, functioning democracy, but when, in the words of the Book of Judges, “Everyone does what is right in his eyes,” order is replaced by anarchy.

When Israel’s Minister of Defense tries to establish a hospital in Israel to treat chronically sick children from Gaza and our prime minister opposes it, then one can only wonder what is happening here.

Benjamin Netanyahu, who agreed to release over 1,000 Palestinian terrorists including Yahya Sinwar in return for just one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, is not prepared to end the war against Hamas in order to bring home the 120 hostages, alive and dead, still being held captive in appalling conditions in Gaza.

Everyone who supports the current government is an accomplice to what is happening. Hopefully the day will come when they will be held accountable for their actions and their inaction.

It is time to bring back some stability and hope to our country.