There are moments when a nation needs more than politicians; it needs prophets. Today, Israel stands at such a moment. Our people are weary. Our politics are fractured. Our leaders, instead of uniting the nation, are too often busy undermining one another.
Knesset debates sound more like quarrels than vision. Yet Israel was not founded on quarrels; it was founded on courage, faith, and sacrifice. We need the return of moral giants, like the men and women who gave everything for the Jewish people and whose lives are living testimonies to devotion and destiny. We need Natan Sharansky, Jonathan Pollard, and others like them to step forward again, not only as symbols of the past, but as servants of the future.
Since October 7, we have learned again, painfully, that our lives depend on leadership. Every mother who sent her child to the army, every father who buried a son, every citizen who trembled that day knows the truth: after God, our lives rest in the hands of our leaders. Yet what happens when those leaders lose sight of service?
When does politics become a game of ego instead of sacrifice? When energy once spent defending people is wasted attacking one another? Israel’s democracy cannot survive without morality. And morality cannot survive without living examples of courage.
Sharansky, who endured years of Soviet imprisonment for the dream of Jerusalem, and Pollard, who spent decades in an American prison for his loyalty to Israel, embody what it means to live for something greater than oneself. They remind us that Israel was never built by comfort; it was built by conviction.
Statues that still breathe
Imagine if Sharansky (again) and Pollard were not just names in textbooks but living presences in our parliament. Their faces, lined by suffering and illuminated by faith, would be lessons in moral endurance. Their presence in the Knesset would be more powerful than any speech. They would stand as living statues of Jewish devotion, silent reminders to every lawmaker of what true service means. Our children need those faces.
They must see what courage looks like, not only in soldiers or spies, but in men of conscience. They must know that Israel’s greatest leaders were not born to comfort, but to sacrifice. When they see Sharansky or Pollard on the news, they should feel pride, not disillusionment. That is how we build a generation of leaders who serve, not exploit, the State of Israel.
Jewish leadership has never been ordinary. To lead Israel is to carry the weight of thousands of years of hope and hatred. The world watches our every decision. Antisemitism spreads again like a virus across continents and campuses. The Jewish people are judged by a double standard: We are condemned when we defend ourselves and abandoned when we fall silent. That is why our leadership must be different, spiritual and strategic, humble and heroic, Torah-rooted and people-centered.
The Knesset is not merely a house of power; it is a house of purpose. Every vote, every law, every decision carries the moral weight of our covenant with history. To sit there is to serve not only citizens but ancestors, the exiles and martyrs who prayed for a return to Zion.
We must speak an uncomfortable truth: It is not fair that some young Israelis risk their lives daily while others hide behind excuses. Every citizen must bear responsibility for this nation’s survival. Carrying the Torah is sacred, but so is carrying the burden of defending those who carry the Torah. Both are holy acts.
The scholars who dedicate their lives to Torah study the genuine judges of Israel’s moral law must be respected. Yet those who refuse to serve while others fight and die betray the spirit of the Torah they claim to honor. Our enemies do not distinguish between secular or religious, Left or Right, Black or white. The missiles that fall on Israel fall on all Jews alike. Therefore, we must all stand together. National service military, medical, educational, or civic is not only a duty; it is the heartbeat of Zionism.
A moral call
It is time for moral Zionists, not just political tacticians, to rise. We must call upon Sharansky and Pollard and others like them – men and women of deep faith, courage, and integrity to join Israel’s political life once again. Whether they join Likud, Yesh Atid, or a new movement altogether, their presence would heal something deep within the Israeli soul.
Their voices would remind us that leadership is not about survival; it is about sanctity. It is about serving the Jewish people, not serving oneself. It is about embodying the verse from Isaiah: “And your people shall all be righteous; they shall inherit the land forever.”
We must also look to other moral figures who have served the nation quietly and faithfully: generals who lead with humility, scholars who blend Torah with wisdom, educators who raise children to love Israel even when the world does not. We need leaders like Dr. Einat Wilf, who blends intellect with integrity, and Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, whose defense of truth is a form of service. Countless others in the military, academia, and community life have proven their loyalty not to a party but to the people.
From division to redemption
The divisions tearing Israel apart are not unsolvable; they are symptoms of spiritual fatigue. What we lack is not intelligence, but inspiration. And inspiration is born only from seeing people who live for something beyond themselves. Let us place our moral heroes not in museums, but in the Knesset. Let their presence remind every minister, journalist, and child that Israel is not just a country, it is a calling.
The world may hate us, but that is not new. What matters is how we answer that hatred with fear or faith, with cynicism or conviction. We survived Pharaoh, Rome, and exile. We will survive this too, but only if we remember who we are.
Israel does not need more politicians. It needs guardians of the Jewish soul. Let Sharansky and Pollard, and others like them, return as living witnesses that devotion to God and the Jewish people is stronger than any prison, exile, or division.
Israel’s true power has never come from weapons or wealth; it comes from moral giants who choose service over self.
Am Yisrael Chai.
The writer is the upcoming author of Moral Diplomacy for a Broken World: Inspired by the Vision of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.