I never met my grandfather, Oved Cohen Arazi, who was killed in battle during the War of Independence. People who arrived at the scene to help the wounded later told my family that my grandfather had been found with his hands on his eyes, which meant that he recited the Shema Yisrael prayer before his death.
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My grandfather is one of Israel's 24,068 fallen soldiers, who gave up their lives so that we could live ours and taught our leaders a lesson about leadership.
Dictionaries define leadership as the ability of an individual to lead a group of people or an organization toward a common goal. Aristotle wrote that ethos, pathos, and logos make a great leader. Whether one is born with leadership skills or develops them throughout life has preoccupied thinkers for generations, although they are yet to provide an unequivocal answer.
In Israel, leadership is of utmost importance and is critical to the country's continued existence. History has taught us that the Jewish people failed to hold on to sovereignty in their land for an extended period of time due to internal strives. In the Hellenistic Period, it weakened the kingdom and led to the exile of the Jews from their land for two thousand years.
Then, in 1948, a miracle occurred. The Jewish people began to return to the land of Israel from all corners of the earth, established a sovereign state, revived the Hebrew language, and made the Zionist dream into a reality.
On May 5, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed our independence, but we would be mistaken to think that the war for our independence is over. It continues, even beyond the borders of our state. Our enemies seek to destroy us; terrorists go on killing sprees just because we are Israelis/Jews; sirens are still heard across the country warning of an incoming missile, especially in areas close to Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, although central Israel has also been targeted.
While an average Israeli citizen contributes to the state by serving in the military, paying taxes, and upholding the law, our leaders seem to have taken a different direction. Sometimes, it seems they are more preoccupied with their future and well-being than those of the public. A former IDF general put it well when he said that soldiers will be the ones who will deliver us from the hands of our enemies … and our leaders.
Political polarization has also spiked in recent years. Everyone is judged by his or her political views. If you support Benjamin Netanyahu, you are immediately dubbed a "bibist," and if you criticize him, you are a leftist.
If you support Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, people immediately view you as left-wing, even if you voted Right. And if you criticize him, they view you as a "full-out" rightist and a supporter of Netanyahu.
Our leaders' ability to rise above the situation and lead the way has also become a matter of politics. When Bennett did not mention Iran and the dangers of its nuclear program in his Holocaust Remembrance Day address, Netanyahu criticized him on social media, saying when he becomes premier next year, he will make sure to do so. Similarly, Netanyahu was lambasted by the Left for keeping his hands in his pockets during the two-minute siren that sounded in honor of Holocaust victims.
Both are in the wrong. Our leaders should be free from the shackles of social media. We want all their faculties focused on us. Our welfare. Our security. Our existence. May they rise above the wishes of their electorate and ascend to the loftiness of the position for which they were chosen, remembering that they represent us all. Then, and only then, can we be sure that our sovereignty will be in tact forever.
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