On the cusp of an Israeli election, the May 29, 1996, edition of The New York Times reported on a meeting that Natan Sharansky had earlier that week in Israel with a dozen Russian physicists, chemists, and engineers to enable them to vent their dissatisfaction with their new lives as immigrants.
As the paper reported: “An extraordinarily high proportion of Russian immigrant voters, perhaps 30 percent, are said by pollsters to be undecided, while the margin between the contenders for prime minister is slim. One poll, released today by the Dahaf Institute, showed the incumbent, Shimon Peres, with 51.5 percent of the vote and his challenger, Benjamin Netanyahu, at 48.5 percent. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.”
May 29 was, of course, the date on which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was first elected to that office at the age of 47, confounding the pollsters and providing a disappointment for Shimon Peres, who lost his third bid to be elected prime minister.
In that election, Netanyahu became the first Israeli prime minister elected directly by popular vote (a process that did not last long), Israel’s youngest, and the first to have been born after the nation’s independence. That was 29 years ago. Bibi was prime minister from 1996-1999, 2009-2021, and now since 2022.
The question now is: When is enough, enough?
Giving credit where credit is due, the prime minister needs to be applauded for his strategic acumen in having made it possible for Israel to reorient the geopolitics of the Middle East by defanging both Iran and its proxies in little more than a year.
In addition, his achievement in getting the US to agree to bomb the nuclear production sites in Iran was something very few of us thought would ever happen. While it is still not clear how effective the strikes were regarding the long-term effect they will have on Iran’s nuclear capabilities, there is no question that significant damage was done, even if there is quibbling going on about the specifics.
However, none of this negates either his ultimate responsibility for the massive security breach of October 7, 2023, or his misreading of the pulse of Israel in the judicial reform activity that consumed us for the 10 months before October 7 and added to our vulnerability.
It is time for younger blood in Israel's leadership
Viewed from 30,000 feet, logic would dictate that at 76 years of age and having been in that position off and on for the last 29 years, it is time for Bibi to make way for younger blood to take the reins of leadership.
While a constant refrain is heard here that only he can do the job, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy that prevents younger people from even thinking of getting involved in a political arena where people believe there is only one person in the country capable of leading us.
We all know that there are thousands of young people who have the smarts, the drive, and the desire to lead if only they could see a reasonable path to the top. Those people – many of whom were not even born when Bibi was first elected – live next door to us, we meet them in the supermarket, and their kids play with ours. We should use them.
We can assist Netanyahu in making the right decision by providing a functioning exit ramp as well. For example, I agree with President Isaac Herzog, who showed great courage in suggesting that the court cases against the prime minister should be put to rest and a plea bargain worked out with Netanyahu to close this chapter in Israel’s history. That would eliminate a festering sore in the national psyche that aches for closure.
In addition, perhaps we can decide to have a state commission of inquiry into what mistakes were made in the run-up to October 7 – not to assign blame but rather to learn what we must do to ensure we are never again caught unprepared. That would be the most important lesson to learn from such an inquiry.
There is no doubt in my mind that it would be a real benefit to the country if the prime minister would internalize all of this logic and make a formal statement that he will not stand for election when next we go to the polls.
There is no question that this will be hard for him to do. I have recently stepped away from the leadership of a company I founded here in Israel 34 years ago. Small potatoes by comparison, but, at any level, it is a real challenge to walk away from something in which you have invested your heart and soul for so many years.
Nevertheless, the future growth and stability of this country rests on our ability to have the best and the brightest in positions of political leadership. The recent war with Hamas has shown us that our younger generation has the grit and the intelligence to do the job. Let’s let them do for us politically what they did for us on the battlefield. They have earned that right, and we owe them that opportunity. Let none of us stand in their way.
The writer is founder and chair of Atid EDI Ltd., an international business development consultancy. He is also founder and chair of the American State Offices Association, former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, and a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.