Human Interest

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, yesterday, went to the University of Public Service Budapest, together with his wife Sara, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University Rector. Following is an excerpt from the Prime Minister’s remarks:

“You honor me with an honorary degree based on leadership. Now, leadership is a difficult thing to quantify and to define. So I had a question about leadership from my father. My late father was a historian of the Jewish people and a university professor. And I asked him before I became prime minister, I said, “Well, what is the most important thing that I have to have in order to lead our country?” And he said, ‘What do you think?’ And I said, ‘Well, I have to have a vision. I have to have also the flexibility and determination, the combination of the two, to navigate to achieve that vision.’

Because as Immanuel Kant said, you know, ‘Nothing can straighten the crooked timber of humanity.’ He said it always. You can’t come with a buzzsaw. He said, ‘Well, that’s true but that’s true of anything. It’s true if you’re a business leader, if you’re a military leader, if you’re an academic leader. You need vision and flexibility. There is one thing you must have if you want to lead this country.’ And I said, ‘So, what’s that?’ And he had one word, which surprised me. He said, “You have to have education. You have to be deeply and broadly educated. Otherwise,’ he said, ‘you’ll be at the mercy of your clerks.’ It’s called the deep state.

So you must have education. Education has been a value for the Jewish people for many, many centuries. For millennia. It’s been a value here in Hungary.”