WhatsappAlthough the general idea of former Prime Minister Bennett’s speech is correct, it does not absolve him of the partial responsibility that he and many other leaders of Israel have in allowing the tragedy of October 7th to occur. Why are Bennett, Netanyahu and other former leaders of the State of Israel responsible? Does the responsibility not chiefly lie on the leaders of the Israel Defense Forces? Why are the political leaders responsible?
The answer to the question lies in the very nature of who bears ultimate responsibility and therefore credit and blame for what happens in the State of Israel. The answer is that the elected leadership bears ultimate responsibility for everything that occurs – in terms of defending the country and in terms of building the country. The Army of Israel follows the orders of the elected leaders – or at least is supposed to. The police are supposed to follow the orders of the Ministry of Internal Security. If they do not, there is something very off in how things are managing.
The core problems in Israel are as follows:
Israel is a country in the midst of transition from a socialist-oriented culture towards a more capitalist culture.
Additionally, their are aspects of the leadership of Israel that are not at all democratic entities – such as the entire Judicial system.
Therefore, even Israel’s Prime Ministers are not able to implement sweeping changes that they would like to implement because of built-in problems like the unelected Judiciary. If Israel’s elected leaders want to change the socialist-based lack of freedom of the press, they are stopped by an activist Judiciary. If Israel’s elected leaders want to change norms within the Israel Armed Forces, they are stopped by the activist Judiciary that is backed up by an overwhwelmingly slanted press.
Israel’s political leadership has both too much and too little power. They lack sufficient checks and balances from within the legislative body, the Knesset. Knesset members are more fearful of the power of the Prime Minister than they other way around. On the other hand, the Prime Minister and his cabinet are stifled to ineffective levels due to the absurdly powerful activist Judiciary.
This creates an odd situation where the last few Prime Ministers of Israel, Netanyahu, Bennett, and Lapid, were able to make significant changes within the Army leadership due to their largely deserved elected power. Yet, they were unable to implement anything truly fundamental that would be vetoed by the non-deserving powerful Judiciary.
One hopes that following the colossal breakdown of October 7th, grass-roots pressure will lead to a cleaning of the house of most of Israel’s leading Army brass. The pipe dreams of 25-30% of Israel’s electorate that Israel actually has an Arab partner to make a peace treaty with in it’s midst have exploded in the faces of millions of Israelis. One hopes that as Naftali Bennett reemerges on the political scene in the coming years, he and others will be more in touch with fulfilling the will of those who voted him into power and less focused on merely staying in power.
