The current war has become a stark symbol of the Israeli tragedy: while soldiers on the front lines, pilots in the sky, and civilians on the home front display remarkable determination, the nation’s decision-makers offer a spectacle of ignorance, complacency, and arrogance. The problem with the current government is not tactical but fundamental. It lies in the quality of the people seated around the cabinet table.

We must face a difficult truth: Israel is fighting what has been defined as an ‘existential struggle’ under a leadership that is hollow and devoid of moral substance. Integrity has been replaced with talking points, and strategic thinking with a collection of worn-out slogans such as ‘Our strength lies in our unity’ and ‘We will be strong’. But beyond these slogans lies a deeper and more troubling problem – a political culture built on deception and self-delusion.

A leader’s greatness is measured first and foremost by the people he appoints to positions of power and by the circle he gathers around him. Genuine leadership requires individuals of integrity – experienced professionals with independent minds and moral courage, capable of asking difficult questions, raising doubts, and preventing catastrophic mistakes that may ultimately be paid for in blood.

Yet around Prime Minister Netanyahu a process resembling reverse natural selection has been unfolding for years. Those who survive in this environment are not the most capable but the most compliant: the intellectually weak, the flatterers, and above all the obedient loyalists. At times it seems that the most desirable trait for a minister in Israel today is the same trait Netanyahu once admired in his dog, Kaya – unquestioning loyalty. Such a group, by its very nature, cannot lead a nation to genuine victory. The management of war requires original thinking, a sober engagement with reality, and above all the courage to speak honestly and ask difficult questions. None of these qualities appear to exist among Israel’s current leadership.

When a leader surrounds himself with ‘yes-men’, he effectively declares that he has no interest in a capable governing team – and certainly no interest in hearing views that differ from his own. Instead he creates an echo chamber in which reality becomes an inconvenience and facts merely suggestions to be edited according to political needs. A leader who cannot maintain a basic relationship with truth condemns his nation to strategic blindness. Rather than confronting threats as they are, he presents them as he wishes them to appear in the next opinion poll.

Public memory may be short, but history is not forgiving. Only months ago the public was triumphantly promised that the Iranian threat had been removed ‘for generations to come’. Such a declaration – delivered with astonishing confidence – was not merely an error of judgment. It was evidence of a leadership that has turned deception into an art form and illusion into a basic political commodity. A leader who sells the public an illusion of absolute security moments before the ground begins to burn is not worthy of leading the nation into another war – a war that will inevitably end either in yet another proclaimed ‘eternal victory’ or in a painful failure blamed on ‘traitors from within’. To follow such leadership blindly is not patriotism. It is national suicide in real time.

The difficulty of achieving victory does not stem from military weakness, nor from the growing vulnerability of Israel’s home front. It stems from the fact that the army is a functioning institution operating within a vacuum of leadership. Hollow leadership cannot even define what ‘victory’ means, because it has lost the ability to recognize the value of factual truth. For such leadership, victory becomes little more than a carefully edited social-media video – a glossy presentation with nothing substantial behind it. In real wars slogans do not intercept missiles, and talking points do not build durable international alliances. Victory eludes us because those tasked with steering the ship are fundamentally unfit for the task.

A society that elects such a dismal collection of individuals – ministers incapable of properly managing their own offices in times of peace – cannot expect to prevail in times of crisis. The intellectual shallowness and moral poverty of Israel’s current ministers have become a bleeding wound at the heart of the country’s national security. People whose entire political existence consists of saying ‘yes’ and preserving their seats cannot lead a complex campaign against a sophisticated enemy. Perhaps it is only symbolic, but symbols often reveal deeper truths: while many ministers in the Iranian government hold doctoral degrees, in Israel one minister proudly boasts of her ignorance and declares that she has never read a line of Chekhov.

It is therefore no surprise that after two and a half years of war the end is still nowhere in sight – although, to correct myself, victory has supposedly been ‘within reach’, as Netanyahu declared exactly two years ago. When a leadership loses the capacity for independent thought, when professional expertise is replaced by a circle of politically motivated loyalists, victory becomes impossible. When war ceases to be an instrument for achieving national goals and instead becomes a mechanism for political survival, victory becomes unattainable. The true existential danger does not lie only beyond Israel’s borders. It sits, first and foremost, around the government table.

An army of lions led by a hollow clique of incompetents is destined to lose – or, at best, to fight the same war again and again. Victory is not merely a product of military strength. It requires integrity in leadership, intelligent governance, and above all a commitment to truth – three qualities that are tragically absent from Israel’s current government.

In the end, societies pay the price for the leaders they choose.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)