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There鈥檚 an old saw that posits that a fish rots from its head. These days, we have overwhelming evidence of that truism by the stench from two ne鈥檈r-do-wells whose greed for power and their egocentrism obsess them with the inordinate drives to retain power, regardless of the cost in human lives and suffering, or to regain power after having converted a formerly highly respected political body into a cult.

One is Benjamin 鈥淏ibi鈥� Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who remains in power by selling his soul to the extreme religious right Orthodox parties at the expense of the remaining Jewish and non-Jewish population and by the immorality of continuing and expanding wars against neighbors so that, some believe, makes him a wartime leader able to retain his office so that he is able to avoid the potential of a prison term for crimes of which he has been called to account.

The other, Trump, is a former U.S. president who exacerbated the Covid pandemic, caused widespread economic distress and unemployment and corrupted the U.S. Supreme Court by selecting extreme right-wing candidates for justices after applying the litmus test of swearing allegiance to overturning the half-century-old Roe V. Wade decision that protected a woman鈥檚 right to control her own body.

This writer鈥檚 attention at this point has been drawn to commenting on Israel and its Trump aficionado Bibi Netanyahu. We鈥檝e just finished mourning the countless thousands if innocent Israeli and Arab lives which have been ended and uprooted as a result of the Hamas invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel appropriately retaliated by attacking the Hamas forces embedded in the Gaza civilian population and burrowed in unfathomable underground tunnel networks. Bibi has resisted every attempt to end the resulting Gaza destruction and death despite evidence that it may not be possible to ever wipe out the evil Hamas.

As if that were not enough to keep Bibi in power as the wartime leader and to keep him out of the halls of justice, he has assailed and invaded Lebanon to destroy as much of the Hezbollah forces which have been attacking northern Israeli communities for the past year. Such Israeli reprisals have been justified. But, Bibi seems dead set to continue the hostilities without considering any sort of cease-fire. Again, being a wartime leader helps to keep Bibi in power and, possibly, out of prison.

All of this has come to mind because of a recent article in The Guardian, which caught my attention because it posited that Israel has been suffering from a perilous brain drain. I have found articles by numerous esteemed authors which document and reinforce that a brain drain has indeed been happening in Israel since the dominance of Netanyahu and his far-right acolytes and before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. That brain drain threatens to rob that miraculous democratic and economic marvel 鈥淪tart-Up Nation,鈥� which Israel has come to represent, of what may well be its most valuable resources and threatening to cause Israel to morph into a less productive and less democratic theocratic nation ala Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan.

It may seem chilling and heartless to bring up this matter while Israelis are suffering at wars on multiple fronts, but those wars will end someday, and Israel will have to reorganize and restore itself by facing the realities of the existential crossroads that it will face at that time. Jews of the diaspora should become more well-informed to prepare themselves to support their Israeli brothers and sisters to protect their notable achievements as a democracy in a hostile region.