Bibi takes no responsibility - and this is a moral failure ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Bibi takes no responsibility - and this is a moral failure

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu set up an interview with his own employee, former journalist and international affairs adviser, former journalist Caroline Glick, to push back against his critics within and outside Israel.

From a Jewish ethical perspective, this is a moral failure.

It is absolutely true that Israel's top priority is protecting and saving the lives of its citizens. Tough decisions must be made and everyone will not be happy with those decisions. Those decisions may indeed be the most moral decisions. But that is not all that is needed from a leader.

When a leader speaks during national trauma, especially one who represents the Jewish people on the world stage, we listen not just to what they say, but how they carry the pain of others. In this interview, Prime Minister Netanyahu defends his decisions, rebuts blame, and explains strategic choices. But something is missing.

There is almost no sense that he is mourning with the people. No “I should have seen,” no “we were too confident,” no “this weighs on me.” He doesn’t lie, but he uses truth as a shield. He doesn't minimize loss, but he converts it into debate points.

And that matters: not because we need perfect leaders, but we need them to be accountable and to be able to grow.

He speaks about the failure of security chiefs, about being misled, about what he would have done if told sooner. But he never says: “I carry this.” He never says "The buck stops here." That absence - that lack of responsibility, repentance, humility, and shared grief - breaks trust. And national leaders must be, above all, trustworthy.

He doesn’t need to self-flagellate. But he should say things like, “We all made assumptions that turned out deadly. I bear that" or “This weighs on me every day, and I will spend the rest of my leadership making it right" or “Even though others missed things, I could have questioned more, demanded more.”

Bibi should be saying, "I am with you - not above you."

Netanyahu invokes Donald Trump in the end. There is too much Trumpism in this interview - never admitting mistakes, never showing real empathy, never admitting that political opponents have something valuable to say.

The leader of the Jewish state should not use Donald Trump as his model of leadership. He should use King David.

As my readers know, I have been spending more and more time on my AskHillel project: defining Jewish ethics in a way that can help everyone, Jew or non-Jew, believer or secular, think in a structured, moral way. Much of this essay came from a newer version of AskHillel I am designing (together with AskHillel itself.)

During these recent months. I have found my approach to public discourse shifting. Rather than framing issues primarily in political or strategic terms, I now find myself drawn to the deeper question: What does a Jewish ethical lens reveal here?

For the most part, I like Bibi. I think he is one of the most brilliant leaders Israel has ever had and he balances the competing pressures he has from all directions as well as any human being possibly can.

But things like those mentioned here have been bothering me, and AskHillel gives me - and the world - the tools to systematically figure out what the ethical problems are and articulate them better. Importantly, it helps us anchor criticism from what is wrong to what can be done better.

An ethical lens like the AskHillel framework helps us elevate the conversation, in this case to move from blame to responsibility and from tribalism to trustworthiness.

I hope more of us start looking at public life through this lens. We might not agree more, but we can change the conversation from partisanship to a common goal of doing what's right with a sense of humility, responsibility and shared humanity.