That leaders who lust can be lethal is a truism that applies, alas, to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His lust for power has turned toxic.*
Once upon a time Netanyahu was among the most gifted politicians in his country’s history. Smart, good looking and articulate; highly educated and well-traveled; expert and experienced not only in politics but in business.
For his excellence he was well rewarded. He served as Israel’s prime minister from 1996 to 1999. A decade later he became prime minister again, this time for twelve years, from 2009 to 2021. Moreover, during this entire stretch, when he was not prime minister, he held other prominent government posts, including Minister of Finance and leader of the opposition.
Things began to turn seriously south for Netanyahu in 2019, when he was formally indicted on charges including bribery and fraud. In June 2021 he was ousted from his post as prime minister by a coalition government.
It’s been said that Netanyahu remained in electoral politics after the charges were filed primarily to avoid the punishments and degradations of being found guilty. Who knows? Impossible to get inside anyone’s head. Whatever his ostensible reason for remaining in the game, he refused to leave the table. While his trial was ongoing, he continued to serve as leader of the opposition and, after yet another round of elections, in December 2022 he again became prime minister.
This first year of Netanyahu’s most recent term has turned out the most disastrous in Israeli history. For many months the country has been under assault from within – its calamitous divisiveness the result of massive protesting against the judicial “reforms” put forth by Netanyahu and his notoriously right-wing, some argue facistic, cabinet. And now the country has suffered another assault, this time from without. An unprecedented attack by Hamas spotlighting an unprecedent failure of Israel’s vaunted intelligence apparatus.
Netanyahu’s lust for power has led to unmitigated tragedy. Nor is this story over. The ultimate consequences of his so far endless tenure remain to be revealed.
I want to be clear here. The cycle of violence in the Middle East is the fault not only of Israeli leadership, but of Palestinian leadership, that is, the lack thereof; and of leadership at the top in every other country in the region and in many other countries around the world. But history will never let Benjamin Netanyahu off the hook. His insistence on remaining in power no matter the price to be paid will forever blacken his name.
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Todd Pittinsky and I define a leader who lusts as having “a psychological drive that produces intense wanting, even desperately needing, to obtain an object, or to secure a circumstance. When the object has been obtained, or the circumstance secured, there is relief, but only briefly, temporarily.” In Leaders Who Lust: Power, Money, Sex, Success, Legitimacy, Legacy. (Cambridge University Pressi, 2020, p. 2.)