{"id":21619,"date":"2025-02-16T13:41:27","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T11:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/?p=21619"},"modified":"2025-02-16T13:45:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T11:45:19","slug":"how-israeli-leaders-ignore-accountability-hold-contempt-for-citizens-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/how-israeli-leaders-ignore-accountability-hold-contempt-for-citizens-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How Israeli leaders ignore accountability, hold contempt for citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bereaved Israeli families are demanding answers, but their political leaders look the other way.<\/h3>\n

The nation holds its breath, waiting with anxious anticipation for what will unfold on Saturday. Will the hostages be released? How many? And if not \u2013 what will Israel do? Will it resume the military offensive against Hamas, or will it seek another way to bring the remaining hostages home?<\/p>\n

Until then, three seemingly small incidents from the past week offer a glimpse into how members of this government view their responsibility for the crisis Israel finds itself in. They expose not only their priorities but also their utter contempt for the very people they have been elected to serve.<\/p>\n

One of the moments came on Wednesday in the Knesset Finance Committee. As they have done almost every week over the past year, families of Israelis murdered by Hamas on October 7 gathered to plead with the Knesset members to establish a state commission of inquiry.<\/p>\n

Their demand came just days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting in which his ministers performed every verbal gymnastic possible to avoid launching such an inquiry. The ministers\u2019 excuses at the Sunday night meeting were predictable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe war is ongoing\u201d (not exactly true). \u201cThe Supreme Court president has no authority to appoint the commission\u201d (also false). \u201cThere are other ways to investigate\u201d (of course \u2013 if you want those investigations to be biased and politically controlled).<\/p>\n

Then, on Wednesday at the Finance Committee, came a telling exchange. The committee meeting, chaired by veteran haredi (ultra-Orthodox) MK Moshe Gafni, was in full swing when Eyal Eshel, father of Roni Eshel \u2013 a female surveillance soldier brutally murdered on October 7 \u2013 addressed Gafni directly.<\/p>\n

\u201cMK Gafni, I have one request \u2013 establish a state inquiry commission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gafni turned his gaze away.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook me in the eye,\u201d Eshel pleaded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to,\u201d Gafni replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to look me in the eye?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a brief, almost surreal exchange. But it revealed everything. Gafni, a politician who has been in the Knesset for almost 40 years, refused to even meet the gaze of a grieving father. This is the level of contempt Gafni and others in this government have for the citizens of Israel \u2013 people whose loved ones paid the ultimate price because of their failures. Gafni and his friends see themselves as untouchable. They believe they are above scrutiny and above accountability.<\/p>\n

The second moment came on Tuesday when the State Attorney\u2019s Office announced it would indict three senior Netanyahu aides for witness intimidation. The case involved an incident in 2019 when the trio allegedly sent a car with a megaphone to the home of a key witness in the prime minister\u2019s corruption trial to harass him.<\/p>\n

The aides in question? Ofer Golan, a longtime spokesman for the Netanyahu family; Jonatan Urich, one of the prime minister\u2019s closest advisers; and Israel Einhorn, another campaign strategist who is also entangled in the leaked intelligence documents affair inside Netanyahu\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Yet the real story wasn\u2019t the indictment itself. It was the response Golan and Urich put out.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter six years of torture\u2026 after the Supreme Court ruled that police actions were illegal\u2026 State Attorney Amit Isman has the audacity to file a two-paragraph pathetic indictment. If they want war, they\u2019ll get war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read that again: \u201cIf they want war, they\u2019ll get war.\u201d<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t a statement from some fringe members of society. These are two current senior advisers to the prime minister \u2013 men who sit in on classified security discussions, have access to the country\u2019s most sensitive secrets, and to the most powerful politician.<\/p>\n

And when confronted with criminal charges, they didn\u2019t say: \u201cWe look forward to clearing our names in court.\u201d They issued a threat. This isn\u2019t how public servants speak. This is how the mafia speaks. No humility. No accountability. Just war.<\/p>\n

Luxury suites<\/p>\n

The third moment, easily lost in the endless churn of Israeli news, happened on Monday, just two days after Or Levy, Ohad Ben-Ami, and Eli Sharabi were released from Hamas captivity. They emerged from almost 500 days of captivity, shadows of their former selves, evoking painful echoes of a darker time in Jewish history.<\/p>\n

Where was Netanyahu when this happened? Not in Israel. His meetings with Trump and other officials had long ended, yet he chose to stay in Washington \u2013 spending the weekend in a luxury hotel suite. Could he have returned? Of course.<\/p>\n

This is precisely why Netanyahu fought to have the state\u2019s private jet, Wing of Zion, at his disposal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span>
MK Moshe Gafni. Photo by Shalev Shalom\/TPS<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even Shabbat is no excuse, not that Netanyahu is exactly observant. But even if he were, being in Israel for the return of hostages is the very definition of pikuach nefesh, the principle that saving lives overrides religious restrictions. On Monday, when Netanyahu had finally returned from his trip, he appeared in court to take the stand in his ongoing corruption trial and launched a tirade against the prosecutors.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor eight years, you\u2019ve been dragging me through this hell,\u201d he fumed. \u201cFor what? Have you no shame?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hell?<\/p>\n

Thirty-six hours earlier, three hostages had stepped out of a tunnel where they were kept for nearly 500 days. They had actually been through hell. And Netanyahu? He had just checked out of the Willard, a five-star hotel.<\/p>\n

To call his legal troubles hell \u2013 after he and his lawyers spent years using every trick in the book to delay the trial \u2013 is not just tone-deaf. It is a profound disconnect from reality.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just part of the story. Since October 7, Netanyahu has flown to the US three times. How many times has he visited Kibbutz Nir Oz, for example, the place where one in four residents was either murdered or abducted by Hamas? Not once.<\/p>\n

This is not what leadership looks like. Real leaders don\u2019t just take credit for the good. They bear responsibility for the bad. They stand with their people also in times of pain and look them in the eye.<\/p>\n

Israel deserves better.<\/p>\n

Published by Jerusalem Post<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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