Over three decades, Benjamin Netanyahu has profoundly changed both Israel and the Middle East.
How influential is Netanyahu?
First elected as prime minister in 1996, he has since won five elections, making him the longest-serving leader in Israel’s history. Netanyahu, 75, has seldom been personally popular—recent polls suggest only 40% of Israelis trust him—but long ago established himself as “Mr. Security,” the man best placed to protect Israel from its enemies, notably Iran and its allies Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. To his critics inside Israel, “King Bibi” is a ruthless and corrupt danger to democracy who prioritizes his own interests over Israel’s. The right-wing leader is, nevertheless, the most influential figure in Israeli politics today, and arguably the entire Middle East. Both friends and foes describe Netanyahu as the ultimate political survivor, one who is motivated by both an overwhelming sense of his own importance—“Without Bibi the country is lost,” his wife, Sara, often says—and a deep pessimism. “I’m asked if we will forever live by the sword: Yes,” he told Israeli lawmakers in 2015.
What shaped his worldview?
His father, in large part. Bibi was born in Tel Aviv in 1949, the middle son of Benzion Netanyahu, a Polish-born medieval historian—“Jewish history is in large measure a history of holocausts,” he once said—who believed in a Greater Israel that would encompass modern-day Jordan. Netanyahu’s teenage years were spent between Israel and the U.S., where his father taught; at 18, in 1967, he returned to Israel for military service. During five distinguished years in the army, he fought in Lebanon and served in the Israeli special forces alongside his brothers Iddo and Yoni, the latter of whom was especially close to Bibi. In 1976, while Netanyahu was studying at MIT, Yoni was killed during a special forces raid to free Israeli hostages held by Palestinian and German terrorists at Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport. In death, Yoni became a national hero and inspired his brother’s political career.
In what way?
Netanyahu said his brother saw himself engaged in a “struggle between civilization and barbarism.” In the wake of Yoni’s death, “[I] devoted myself to this battle.” The Netanyahus founded an Israeli anti-terrorism institute in Yoni’s memory; Bibi headed the organization, which gave him the connections to enter politics. Appointed Israel’s representative to the U.N. in 1984, he became a regular presence on U.S. cable news, defending Israel’s policies with skill and charm. Elected to the Knesset in 1988, Netanyahu was named head of the right-wing Likud party in 1993 and three years later became prime minister after defeating Shimon Peres’ Labor by less than 1 percentage point. His first term was troubled. He infuriated right-wingers by ceding chunks of the West Bank to Palestinian Authority control, while accusations of corruption damaged him with centrists. He lost the 1999 election.
How did he make a comeback?
Netanyahu served in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s cabinet in the early 2000s, before resigning in 2005 to protest Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip. In 2009, he was elected prime minister again, capitalizing on a rightward shift in Israel fueled partly by Hamas’ takeover of Gaza and fear of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. In office, he nurtured Israel’s high-tech economy, forged anti-Iran alliances with Arab monarchies, and gained notoriety for trying to consolidate power. His attempts at media manipulation, allegedly offering deals in return for favorable coverage, embroiled him in two criminal cases; his proposed “judicial reform” law would allow for greater political influence over the judiciary. On the Palestinian issue, Netanyahu has worked to undermine a two-state solution. His governments, which have included far-right parties since 2022, have let Israeli settlers build on West Bank land designated as Palestinian by the U.N. And until the massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, Netanyahu let Qatar send millions of dollars a month to Gaza, believing a strong Hamas would serve as a counterweight to the West Bank–based Palestinian Authority.
How did Oct. 7 affect him?
The attack by Hamas, in which nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage, was the result of serious intelligence failings, and initially dealt a crushing blow to Netanyahu’s reputation. His relentless prosecution of the war in Gaza since—in which more than 65,000 people have died, according to Palestinian authorities—has weakened Israel’s alliances with many Western nations and bitterly divided Israelis, though the campaign still enjoys significant support in the country. Critics allege he has kept the war going to appease far-right members of his coalition, delay a reckoning over his security failures, and reduce the possibility of his being tried on corruption charges. “My Matan is being sacrificed on Netanyahu’s altar,” Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, said earlier this month.
Why is Netanyahu still in power?
Because the war’s continuation has let him play to his strengths as Mr. Security. Under Netanyahu’s leadership since Oct. 7, Israel has not merely destroyed Hamas as a military force but also decapitated its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, and inflicted major damage on Iran’s military capabilities and nuclear program, with U.S. assistance, in its 12-day war with the Islamic Republic. While Israel’s regional enemies are weaker, Netanyahu warned last week that growing international condemnation could force Israel to become a “super Sparta” with “autarkic features,” meaning little engagement with international trade—presumably with himself in charge. “He thinks he’s the one who can save Israel from the imminent threat of annihilation,” said Aviv Bushinsky, who worked as an aide to Netanyahu for nine years. “He really believes that he is the only one on Earth that can do it.”
Dealing with Washington
“Who the f--- does he think he is? Who’s the f---ing superpower here?” These were reportedly Bill Clinton’s words after his first meeting with Netanyahu, in 1996. The Israeli prime minister knows the U.S. and its media well, and—buoyed by pro-Israel lobby groups and support from the Christian Right—he has felt confident to push back against Democratic presidents who have sought to rein in Israel. Barack Obama’s officials described him as “untrustworthy.” In 2015, Netanyahu accepted a Republican invitation to address Congress and railed against the nuclear deal Obama was brokering with Iran. Bibi had better relations with President Joe Biden, especially after Oct. 7. But by the time Biden left office, he was privately referring to Netanyahu as an “asshole.” President Trump has given Netanyahu free rein to wage war in Gaza and attack Israel’s enemies across the Middle East. But there are signs that, like his predecessors, Trump is losing patience with Bibi. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that, after Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in U.S.-allied Qatar, Trump told aides, “He’s f---ing me.”
