Today, April 27, five days after Israel’s Independence Day, South Africa celebrates Freedom Day, marking its first democratic elections in 1994 and the end of apartheid. I did not place the dates side by side in order to compare regimes, but to illustrate how true leadership operates in face of challenges. When reviweing the South Africa’s relatively smooth transition from apartheid, a system in which a white minority oppressed a Black majority, the reader will recognize that unlike the way Israel has been led in recent years, leaders worthy of that designation see the general good rather than personal and partisan interests, strive to unite rather than to divide, and seek solutions rather than scapegoats.

The exemplary leader who comes to mind is Nelson Mandela, and rightly so. He spent 27 years in prison, yet did not emerge on a campaign of revenge against the oppressors, but pursued reconciliation. His actions aimed at inclusion rather than exclusion, and included retaining white staff who served the previous regime, including the woman who was to become his personal secretary when he became President. No wonder he is widely commemorated, including on all South African banknotes.

However, as the Nobel Peace Prize committee recognized when it awarded it jointly to Mandela, the first Black president, and to the all-but-forgotten last white president,........

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