As bad as Tuesday night’s security cabinet meeting was, there was one glimmer of relief: Itamar Ben-Gvir wasn’t there.
The far-right minister, never shy to turn national security into performance art, was instead gallivanting through Florida – attending an event in a side room at Mar-a-Lago, window shopping rifles at a local gun store, inspecting a prison, and wandering the palm-lined streets of Bal Harbour, talking with random pedestrians and police officers.
Had Ben-Gvir attended the cabinet meeting, his theatrics might have overshadowed what was already a disgraceful moment in the government’s ongoing shameful conduct. This was highlighted by the way Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sparred with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir and ignored Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar.
During the meeting, Smotrich clashed with Zamir over the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza, demanding that IDF troops take on the task despite warnings that it would compromise the military’s operational preparedness.
“We’ve specified the goal. You execute it,” Smotrich reportedly said to Zamir. “If you’re incapable, we’ll find someone who is.”
This wasn’t a policy debate. It was a calculated humiliation of the IDF’s top commander. Later, when Bar began speaking, Smotrich stood up and left the room, telling colleagues he was going to the bathroom.
The way he treated Bar is not surprising due to the ongoing standoff between the Shin Bet chief and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But Smotrich’s treatment of Zamir, who assumed his post just over a month ago and received unanimous praise upon appointment, marked a new low. This was not about security policy. It was about power and submission.
But this is the reality today in Israel. Ministers like Smotrich don’t believe that they can be questioned or challenged. They don’t see the value in having a chief of staff who does not simply do what he is told. This is what happened with Bar and Netanyahu.
The prime minister – according to Bar’s affidavit to the High Court – wanted a Shin Bet director who would prioritize his personal loyalty to the prime minister over his allegiance to the state. When Bar refused to do that, he became the government’s public enemy number one.
Obviously, the government sets policy, and the security chiefs implement it. After all, it is the ministers who were elected by the people. And exactly because of this, it is striking how, more than 18 months after October 7, no one in the government has taken responsibility for what happened.
The chief of staff has gone home, the head of Military Intelligence hung up his uniform more than a year ago, and Bar is just a matter of days away from being out of a job as well.
Responsibility or accountability
But the ministers? They have no sense of responsibility or accountability.
Take Education Minister Yoav Kisch as an example. A recording released by Channel 12 this week provided a glimpse into how the man responsible for our children’s education views the hostages. Most of them, he is heard saying in a recording from a meeting he had with the family of a hostage still being held in Gaza, are IDF soldiers.
“No, there are 24,” a relative corrected him.
“But out of the 24, how many are soldiers?” Kisch asked again.
The answer is four: Matan Angrest, Tamir Nimrodi, Edan Alexander, and Nimrod Cohen.
That Kisch, the minister responsible for our education system, does not know the most basic facts about the hostages still in Gaza – 567 days after their abduction – is appalling. It is an insult to the hostages, their families, and to every Israeli who expects even a minimum of seriousness from those in power.
There is no excuse. All Kisch has to do is walk into almost any school in the country, where hostage posters still hang in hallways. He can watch the Hamas propaganda videos of Omri Miran and Elkana Bohbot – neither of whom are soldiers – which were put out in the last week. By the way, they are civilians – Israelis who were abandoned at the Nova music festival and in their homes by this government.
And yet, this isn’t just about Kisch. It is the policy of the entire government, and they learn it from the man on top. Netanyahu is the champion of avoiding responsibility and not knowing the details of the failures that happen on his watch. He has misstated the date of when the Hamas massacre happened, has forgotten the names of hostages, and more.
But this is the irony of this government. Netanyahu, Smotrich, and others want security chiefs to do what they say, but then, when something happens – an October 7 or anything else – they absolve themselves of any responsibility. The prime minister presided over a policy for 15 years that empowered Hamas, and when that policy exploded in Israel’s face, he claimed no responsibility.
It was, his loyalists say, the fault of the Shin Bet. It was because no one woke up the prime minister in the middle of the night.
No responsibility and no accountability. Only deflections and distractions.
The Israeli public deserves leaders who don’t hide behind excuses and scapegoats. With this style of leadership, it will be impossible for the country to heal.
This cannot continue. Israel needs a national reset. That will not happen while Yoav Kisch lectures hostage families, Bezalel Smotrich berates the IDF, and Benjamin Netanyahu clings to power through blame.
Healing will begin the day they step down.
The writer is co-author of a forthcoming book, While Israel Slept, about the October 7 Hamas attacks and is a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, a global Jewish think tank based in Jerusalem.