Israel’s Leadership Crisis!

Israel is facing a leadership crisis at a time of extreme danger to the Jewish State, with an ongoing conflict in Gaza and Iranian proxies testing Israel’s resolve to defend its northern borders while under pressure from worldwide anti-Semitism.

On Shabbat, a friend commented on the absence of leaders Israel could call on to lead the nation through this turmoil. His exact words were, “Where is the next leader of Israel coming from?” He said he “could not see any of today’s politicians inheriting the mantle of Binyamin Netanyahu”.

I found myself agreeing with him. Who is a potential leader, a Jewish leader whose Zionism is an existential commitment to the people of Israel? Constituting who he is and not his ideological superstructure. A leader amazingly shrewd, with great wit and terrific judgement. Capable of shaping history at crucial historical moments. Not afraid to set the nation’s course even when that course ran contrary to American self-interest. A leader who would deal honestly with the stigma of being Jewish in the eyes of the gentile world. This leader needs to be a statesman of genius with a view of human affairs more significant and profound than are commonly found in even the most capable and successful men; in short, a leader of genius. He would need to attract political allies by the intensity and purity of his mind, a fearless and unbending character, and the simplicity and nobility of the central principle he adheres to—the survival of the Jewish State above all else.

This leader, unlike so many of today’s candidates, would need a complete and unbroken personality of immense strength, dignity and political wisdom who did not suffer from Jewish disabilities, the ‘ambivalences’, and the uncertainty about what one is and where one belongs, the self-conscious vacillations and doubts and hesitations our leaders suffer from today.

Where is this leader? Where is he to be found? For Israel sorely needs this leader now!