Mr. Security, or Mr. Self-Confidence? |
Nearly three years after October 7, it is still too early to summarize, but not too early to see patterns.
Wars have no winners, only those who lose less. But they have objectives. And in democracies, the government and the prime minister are ultimately responsible for these objectives. Netanyahu said so himself. Several times.
So let us apply the least ideological test there is to the man who labeled himself “Mr. Security” for years. Only what was promised versus what was achieved.
Regarding the hostages, the declared strategy was clear: only military pressure would bring them home. That claim justified rejecting deals, dismissing critics, and branding compromise as surrender. In the end, the decisive returns came through agreements. Only eight living hostages were rescued by the IDF over two years of fighting.
But the sadder reality is that hostages were killed in failed rescue attempts, as troops closed in, in Israel’s airstrikes, murdered in captivity, while the government assured that pressure is the only way to save them. Military pressure may have mattered at the margins. But the central claim, that pressure itself was the path, was not vindicated. The strategy’s price was paid in human beings, while an earlier deal sat on the table.
Behavioral science calls this trap escalation of commitment. Once leaders invest lives, reputation, and national identity in a strategy, negative........