Is there still a war going on? Are Israeli soldiers still dying in Gaza, fighting a battle that now seems to lack both purpose and direction? Is Syria not unraveling just a week after Israel was expressing optimism that normalization with its neighbor to the north was in the cards?
You wouldn’t know it from the headlines over the past few days.
There was the strange appearance of US Ambassador Mike Huckabee clutching a Bugs Bunny doll at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criminal trial. There was the government’s convening of a special pre-dismissal hearing for Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, a transparent act of political intimidation, and there was the decision to indict the head of the Israel Prison Service and one of Netanyahu’s closest aides.
And then there was the resignation of United Torah Judaism from the coalition after the prime minister failed to deliver a law granting blanket military exemption to the haredim (ultra-Orthodox).
Meanwhile, four IDF divisions are still deployed in Gaza. Israeli jets are striking targets in Syria, and nuclear talks with Tehran are expected to resume soon.
And when it comes to the haredim, possibly the most contentious domestic issue right now in Israel, it is hard to understand why Netanyahu doesn’t simply do the right thing: announce, once and for all, that the era of sweeping military exemptions for the haredim is over.
He knows it is right, his advisers know it, and the public mostly knows it. The cost of the status quo is no longer theoretical.
Still, instead of showing leadership, Netanyahu spent Monday night pacing the Knesset, pleading with United Torah Judaism’s Moshe Gafni to retract his resignation and pressuring Likud MK Yuli Edelstein to soften the draft bill so his coalition wouldn’t fall apart. All of this after three soldiers had been killed in Gaza earlier that day.
Netanyahu understands better than anyone that elections are coming – whether because the haredim walk out or because a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas will prompt Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich to bolt from the coalition. And even if, against all odds, the coalition limps along, the countdown has already begun. By early next year, Israel will be back in campaign mode.
So, why even try to give the haredim what they want? For just a few more months of political survival?
The answer is that Netanyahu isn’t looking just at the short-term gain right now but at the longer political benefit. He isn’t just trying to hold his coalition together in the present; he wants to ensure that the ultra-Orthodox don’t punish him at the ballot box in the future.
He knows that after the next election, he’ll still need them, either to form a new government or to stick with him and block the Center-Left from forming a government. That is why he doesn’t want to give them a reason now to drift toward Naftali Bennett, Benny Gantz, or Yair Lapid.
When he wants to, Netanyahu knows how to lead
IN RECENT weeks, though, we have seen examples of what happens when Netanyahu does choose to lead. He did so with the decision to launch a strike against Iran’s nuclear program, and he did it again this week with the decision to protect the lives of the Druze in Syria, sending the air force to bomb regime targets in Damascus and across Syria’s south.
Neither of these was an easy decision. Attacking Iran came with great risk, and initial Israeli assessments were that thousands of Israelis would be killed and several pilots would not return home. Taking action to defend the Druze has the potential to lead to a larger-scale clash with Syria, and the IDF on Wednesday was warning that there could be several days of fighting.
Still, in both cases, Netanyahu chose to lead. He made the moral and national argument that in a post-October 7 reality, Iran could not be allowed to continue unchecked to develop a nuclear weapon and amass long-range ballistic missiles. He also explained that Israel would not sit by and watch Druze – even if they are located on the other side of the border – be attacked and executed.
Yes, Israel’s interests vary, but it is clear about one thing: protecting its citizens and their families. This is the case of the Druze who have been loyal to Israel, and in return, the government is loyal to them, even if it means an escalation with Syria and tension with the Americans.
Netanyahu now has an opportunity to show this same leadership when it comes to the haredi draft. Now that UTJ and Shas have left the coalition, Netanyahu can ensure that no law is passed since there already is one – the one according to which all Israelis are obligated to draft at the age of 18. There is no need for a new law. All that is needed is to enforce the existing one.
This is leadership – doing what is right, not because of political expediency, but because of national interest. Netanyahu showed that with Iran and with the Druze in Syria. It is now time to turn that leadership inward.
Because leadership is not just about launching airstrikes or making bold speeches. It is about setting a vision for the country and standing behind it. It is about drawing moral redlines and living by them, not just when it comes to Iran or Syria, but when it comes to the integrity of Israeli society itself.
There is no greater challenge to national cohesion than a system in which some Israelis risk their lives while others don’t have to. This moment demands courage. It demands a break from the transactional politics that have come to define this government, and it demands a prime minister who, after everything, is finally willing to say: “enough.”
The writer is the co-founder of MEAD – Middle East America Dialogue, co-author of While Israel Slept, about the October 7 Hamas attacks, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, and a former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.