Our family made aliyah in July 2005, just one month before Israel withdrew from Gaza. In the two decades since, Hamas transformed Gaza into a fortress of terror, expanded its rocket arsenal to threaten major Israeli cities, and constructed a vast subterranean network of command centers and attack tunnels.<\/p>\n
![\"Prime](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/540947.jpeg\"\/)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM\/THE JERUSALEM POST)<\/p>\n
For almost 15 of those years, nearly three-quarters of the post-disengagement era, Benjamin Netanyahu has served as prime minister.<\/p>\n
Under his watch, nearly 20,000 rockets have been launched at our citizens, and he has led the nation through four of the six major military operations in Gaza, including the current Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n
My generation grew up with the words of former US president Harry Truman: \u201cThe buck stops here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Truman wasn\u2019t seeking blame, but rather acknowledging the weight of responsibility that comes with leadership. Yet, inexplicably, Netanyahu has refused to accept responsibility for the October 7 disaster, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust, despite it occurring on his watch.<\/p>\n
Similarly, we were raised on former US president John F. Kennedy\u2019s challenge: \u201cAsk not what your country can do for you \u2013 ask what you can do for your country.\u201d<\/p>\n
While political \u201cpork\u201d is a staple of global democracy, nothing prepared me for the version practiced in today\u2019s Knesset.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu’s grip on power<\/p>\n
To maintain his grip on power, Netanyahu has abandoned his self-professed fiscal conservatism for a form of hyper-socialism. He diverts value created by the working class and redistributes it to a sector ideologically committed to remaining outside the workforce.<\/p>\n
This shift mirrors George Orwell\u2019s warning in Animal Farm, where revolutionary ideals of equality are perverted until only one law remains: \u201cAll animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Israel today, we see a two-tiered system. On one side are the \u201cequal\u201d animals: the tax-paying, draft-eligible public who sustain the state\u2019s economy and security.<\/p>\n
On the other hand are the \u201cmore equal\u201d animals: the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector, which, through political leverage, has secured exemptions from military service and massive subsidies for institutions that refuse to teach core subjects like math, English, and science.<\/p>\n
This policy prioritizes a guaranteed outcome for a specific group over equality before the law for all. Netanyahu\u2019s coalition treats the IDF draft and the national budget as spoils to be divided, subordinating national responsibility to the political needs of the most insular and fastest-growing sector of society.<\/p>\n
The contrast in sacrifice is stark. When my wife and I met President Herzog after Ari fell, he shared his relief and pride that his son had just returned from deployment in Gaza.<\/p>\n
History remembers the son of former president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who fell in the War of Independence, and more recently, the son and nephew of Gadi Eisenkot, who fell in this current conflict.<\/p>\n
While some leaders\u2019 families pay the ultimate price, others oversee a system that enables their own families and constituents to evade sacrifice.<\/p>\n
History offers a compelling parallel in the American experience: when former US president Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945, the nation was shocked because an entire generation had never known another president.<\/p>\n
This led to the 22nd Amendment, limiting US presidents to two terms. There is wisdom in this constraint.<\/p>\n
Term limits provide a new vantage point \u2013 a cognitive reset that enables leaders to see the \u201cas-is\u201d reality of a situation rather than the \u201cintended\u201d outcome they have spent years defending.<\/p>\n
New leadership brings a fresh perspective necessary to disrupt the biases that cause them to overlook their own errors.<\/p>\n
We cannot keep electing the same people and expect different results.<\/p>\n
In 2016, Netanyahu told CNN he wanted to be remembered as the \u201cprotector of Israel.\u201d More recently, he told Douglas Murray that legacy is beyond one\u2019s control unless \u201cyou write it yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
But legacy is written in results, not rhetoric.<\/p>\n
Today, the mission of these existential wars remains unfinished. We did not choose these conflicts.<\/p>\n
Instead, they were thrust upon us by Hamas\u2019s October 7 atrocities<\/a> and Hezbollah\u2019s unprovoked aggression in the north, where their massive, albeit diminished, missile arsenal poses a constant, lethal shadow over our citizens.<\/p>\n Furthermore, we cannot ignore the shadow of an Iran<\/a> that stands at the nuclear threshold while holding a ballistic arsenal like a proverbial sword over our heads. These are not wars of choice, but of survival, and the threats remain formidable.\u00a0<\/p>\n