Netanyahu keeps putting himself before Israel, proving he is unfit to lead - opinion

Imagine if, in the weeks after the October 7 massacre, once the situation in southern Israel had been stabilized, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had gone on national television, looked into the camera, and taken responsibility.Imagine if he had told the battered and traumatized nation that the government he led had failed, that he bore responsibility for the failures that allowed the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust to take place and that – once the war was over – he would establish an independent investigation into what went wrong, from which no one, including himself, would be exempt.And imagine if, alongside that admission of responsibility, Netanyahu had embarked on a journey across the country, attending funerals, visiting shiva (mourning) houses, sitting with the families of the hostages, listening to the stories of those who had lost loved ones and showing not just sympathy, but humility, pain and solidarity.Would it have changed everything? Of course not. The failures of October 7 could not be erased by an apology alone. But imagine what it might have done for the healing of the country, as well as for Netanyahu himself.He could have transformed his image from that of a leader who had divided the country in the year preceding October 7, into one who was working to unite it.