Conviction

Two thousand years ago, the Jewish leadership in Judea had a problem. Rome. Not the easiest of neighbours – and definitely not a power you wanted to antagonise without a clear plan for survival. Yet the priests, zealots, and political schemers of the day seemed to think that chest-thumping bravado would see off the legions. 

They confused principle with stubbornness, unity with factional squabbling, and strategic vision with shouting at the biggest empire in the known world until it lost its temper. The result? The Temple flattened, Jerusalem in ruins, and the population scattered to the winds for nearly two millennia. That’s what bad leadership looks like – long-term devastation served up as the inevitable outcome of short-term hubris.

Fast-forward to today, and Benjamin Netanyahu presides over a modern, militarily dominant state. He has no foreign occupier threatening to cart the nation off in chains – quite the opposite. Yet his government is steadily steering Israel into diplomatic isolation, alienating allies, and ensuring the country is defined less by its achievements than by the settlements it builds and the civilians it bombs. 

Just as in the first century, the leadership confuses defiance with strength, and tactical gains with strategic success. The cost will not be borne by Netanyahu or his ministers, but by ordinary Israelis who will have to live with the consequences long after the architects of this mess have swapped the cabinet room for the dock.

Because Netanyahu is already spending a good portion of his time there. His corruption trial – dragging on since 2020 – carries the risk of a decade in prison for bribery, plus extra for fraud and breach of trust. Yet here he is, juggling international crises while trying to save his own skin in court. This is leadership at its most self-serving: not guiding a nation to safety, but steering it through a storm while keeping one eye on the horizon and the other on the prison gates. 

Judea’s leaders failed to see the cliff until they were tumbling over it. Netanyahu appears to be accelerating towards it, convinced that the sheer force of his own conviction will keep the drop from existing — though history suggests the more likely outcome is a conviction of an entirely different sort.