Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin «Bibi» Netanyahu (in Hebrew, בִּנְיָמִין «בִּיבִּי» נְתָנְיַהוּ Binyamin Netanyahu^ⓘ; Tel Aviv, October 21, 1949) is an Israeli politician. As of December 2022 he is the current Prime Minister of Israel, a position he also held from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021; He is also a member of the Knesset and chairman of the Likud party.

Born to secular Jewish parents, he was the first Israeli prime minister born after the creation of the State of Israel. He joined the Israel Defense Forces during the Six-Day War in 1967 and became head of a Sayeret Matkal special forces unit. He participated in many missions, including Operation Infierno (1968), Operation Gift (1968) and the Sabena Flight 571 hijacking rescue operation (1972), during which he was shot in the shoulder. He fought on the front lines in the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War in 1973, participating in special forces raids along the Suez Canal and later leading a commando assault into Syrian territory. He reached the rank of captain before being discharged. After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with degrees of B.S. and M.S., he was hired as an economic consultant by the Boston Consulting Group. He returned to Israel in 1978 to found the Yonatan Netanyahu Anti-Terrorism Institute, named after his brother, who died leading the Entebbe operation. He served as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations from 1984 to 1988.

He became leader of the Likud in 1993 and won the 1996 elections, becoming the youngest prime minister in the history of Israel. He served his first term between June 1996 and July 1999. Having been defeated in the 1999 prime ministerial election by Ehud Barak, he abandoned the political arena for the private sector. He returned to politics in 2002 as Minister of Foreign Affairs (2002-2003) and Minister of Finance (2003-2005) in the governments of Ariel Sharon, but left the government due to disagreements regarding the plan to disengage the strip of Loop. He resumed leadership of Likud in December 2005, after Sharon left the party to form the new Kadima. In December 2006, he became the official leader of the opposition in the Knesset. After the 2009 parliamentary election, in which Likud came second and right-wing parties won the majority, he formed a coalition government. Netanyahu was elected for the third time in January 2013 and for the fourth time in March 2015. He continued to serve as prime minister after the April 2019 elections in which no candidate managed to form a government, and the same happened with the elections in September of the same year. After a third consecutive election, Netanyahu assumed his fifth term in May 2020, in a coalition government with Benny Gantz as alternate Prime Minister, but the coalition collapsed and there were again elections in March 2021. In June 2021, he left office. as prime minister and was succeeded by Naftalí Bennett. Since December 2022 he is prime minister again.

Netanyahu served as prime minister for more than 15 years, making him the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history, surpassing even the state's founder, David Ben-Gurion. He was also the longest-elected prime minister., leading a total of six governments (1996, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2020, 2022) and the only one to form a government three times in a row (2009, 2013 and 2015). He was also the only prime minister in the history of Israel. charged with corruption while still in office.

Biography

Early life and career

Netanyahu was born in 1949 in Tel Aviv, son of Tzila Segal (August 28, 1912-January 31, 2000) and Prof. Benzion Netanyahu (1910-2012), being the second of three children. He was initially raised and educated in Jerusalem, where he attended Henrietta Szold Elementary School. A copy of the evaluation from his sixth-grade teacher, Ruth Rubenstein, indicated that Netanyahu was courteous, polite, helpful, his work was “responsible and punctual,” and that Netanyahu was kind, disciplined, cheerful, brave, active and obedient. Between 1956 and 1958, and again from 1963 to 1967, his family lived in the United States, in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, where he attended and graduated from Cheltenham High School and was active in a club. of debate. To this day, he speaks fluent English, with a notable Philadelphia accent.

After graduating from high school in 1967, Netanyahu returned to Israel to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces. He trained as a combat soldier and served for five years in an elite IDF special forces unit, Sayeret Matkal. He participated in numerous cross-border assault raids during the War of Attrition (1967-1970), eventually becoming a team leader in the unit. He was wounded in combat on multiple occasions.He was involved in many other missions, including Operation Inferno (1968) and the rescue of the hijacked Sabena Flight 571 (May 1972), in which he was shot in the shoulder.

After completing his military service in 1972, Netanyahu returned to the United States at the end of that year to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He returned to Israel in October 1973 to serve in the Yom Kippur War in the Sayeret Matkal commando unit. While there, he fought in special forces raids along the Suez Canal against Egyptian forces, before to lead a commando strike deep into territory inside Syria, whose mission remains classified today.

He then returned to the United States and completed a B.S. degree in architecture in February 1975 and earned his M.S. degree at the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1977. At the same time, he was studying for a Ph.D. in political science at Harvard University, until his studies were interrupted by the death of his brother in the Entebbe operation.

At MIT, Netanyahu studied with a double burden, completing an M.S. (which would normally be four years) in just two and a half years (despite taking a break to fight in the Yom Kippur War) and simultaneously completing a graduate thesis at Harvard. Professor Groisser at MIT recalled: " He did it magnificently. He was very bright. Organized. Strong. Energetic. He knew what he wanted to do and how to get it done.

At this time he changed his name to Benjamin Ben Nitai (Nitai, a reference to both Mount Nitai and the Jewish sage of the same name, Nittai of Arbela, which was a pseudonym often used by his father for articles) Years later, in a media interview, Netanyahu clarified that he decided to do it to make it easier for Americans to pronounce his name. This fact has been used by his political rivals to indirectly accuse him of lacking Israeli national identity and loyalty.

In 1976, Netanyahu lost his older brother Yonatan Netanyahu. Yonatan served as commander of Benjamin's former unit, the Sayeret Matkal, and was killed in action while rescuing terrorist hostages during his mission in Operation Entebbe, in which his unit rescued more than 100 kidnapped Israeli hostages. by terrorists and taken to Entebbe airport in Uganda.

In that same year, Netanyahu graduated as one of the best students in his class at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and became an economic consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in Boston, Massachusetts, working at the company between 1976 and 1978. At the Boston Consulting Group he was a colleague of Mitt Romney, with whom he formed a lasting friendship. Romney remembers Netanyahu at the time: "[A] strong personality with a distinct point of view," and says that "[we] can almost speak in shorthand (...) [we] share common experiences and have a perspective and underpinnings that are similar." Netanyahu said their "easy communication" was a result of BCG's "intellectually rigorous training camp."

In 1978, Netanyahu appeared on local Boston television, under the name "Ben Nitai," where he argued: "The true core of the conflict is the regrettable Arab refusal to accept the state of Israel [...] During "20 years ago the Arabs had both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and if self-determination, as they now say, is at the core of the conflict, they could easily have established a Palestinian state."

In 1978, Netanyahu returned to Israel. Between 1978 and 1980 he directed the Yonathan Netanyahu Anti-Terrorism Institute, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the study of terrorism; The Institute held a series of international conferences focused on the discussion of international terrorism. From 1980 to 1982 he was marketing director of Rim Industries in Jerusalem. During this period Netanyahu made his first connections with several Israeli politicians, including Minister Moshe Arens, who appointed him as his Deputy Chief of Mission at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., a position he held from 1982 to 1984. Between 1984 and 1988, Netanyahu served as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. Netanyahu was influenced by Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, with whom he formed a relationship during He referred to Schneerson as "the most influential man of our time."

Early political career (1988-1996)

Before the 1988 Israeli legislative election, Netanyahu returned to Israel and joined the Likud party. In Likud's internal elections, Netanyahu placed fifth on the party's list. He was later elected as a Knesset member in the 12th Knesset, and was appointed as deputy minister to Foreign Minister Moshe Arens, and later David Levy. Netanyahu and Levy did not cooperate and the rivalry between the two only intensified subsequently. During the 1991 Madrid conference, Netanyahu was one of the members of the Israeli delegation led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. Following the conference, Netanyahu was appointed deputy minister in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.

After the Likud party's defeat in the 1992 Israeli legislative elections, the political group held a primary election in 1993 to select its leader, and Netanyahu emerged victorious, defeating Ze'ev "Benny" Begin (the son of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin) and veteran politician David Levi (Sharón also initially sought the leadership of the Likud party, but quickly withdrew when it was evident that he was attracting minimal support). Shamir retired from politics shortly after Likud's defeat in the 1992 elections.

After the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, his temporary successor, Shimon Peres, decided to call early elections in order to give the government a mandate to advance the peace process. Netanyahu was the Likud candidate for prime minister in Israel's 1996 general election, which took place on May 26 of that year and was the first Israeli election in which its citizens elected their prime minister directly. Netanyahu hired Republican American political operative Arthur Finkelstein to run his campaign, and although the American style of strong speeches and sharp attacks drew harsh criticism from within Israel, he proved effective (the method was later copied by Ehud Barak during the campaign 1999 election in which he defeated Netanyahu). When Netanyahu won the 1996 election, he became the youngest person in history to hold that position and the only prime minister of Israel born in the State of Israel itself (Yitzhak Rabin was born in Jerusalem, during British Mandate Palestine, before the founding of the State of Israel in 1948).

Netanyahu's victory over pre-election favorite Shimon Peres surprised many. The main catalyst for the latter's downfall was a wave of suicide bombings shortly before the election; On March 3 and 4, 1996, Palestinians carried out two suicide bombings, killing 32 Israelis, leaving Peres apparently unable to stop the attacks. Unlike Peres, Netanyahu did not trust Yasser Arafat and conditioned any progress in the peace process on the Palestinian National Authority fulfilling its obligations: mainly the fight against terrorism; and he ran with the campaign slogan “Netanyahu, making a secure peace.” However, although Netanyahu won the election for prime minister, Labor won the Knesset elections, putting the Likud-Gesher-Tzomet coalition in trouble, so Netanyahu had to resort to an alliance with the ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and Yahadut Hatorah (whose social welfare policies were against their capitalist views) in order to govern.^{[citation needed]}

Prime Minister (1996-1999)

First period

A series of suicide bombings strengthened Likud's security position. Hamas claimed responsibility for most of the attacks. As Prime Minister, Netanyahu raised many questions about many central premises of the Oslo peace process. One of his main points of disagreement with the Oslo premise was that the negotiations should proceed in stages, meaning that concessions had to be made to the Palestinians before reaching any resolution on the main issues, such as the status of Jerusalem, and the modification of the Palestinian National Charter. Oslo supporters had claimed that the multi-stage approach would promote goodwill with the Palestinians and could prompt seeking reconciliation when these important issues were raised in later stages. Netanyahu claimed that these concessions would only give encouragement to extremist elements, without receiving any tangible gesture of change. He called for tangible gestures of Palestinian goodwill in exchange for Israeli concessions. Despite his stated differences with the Oslo Accords, Prime Minister Netanyahu continued its implementation, but his tenure saw a marked slowdown in the peace process.

In 1996, Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert decided to open an exit from the Arab quarter to the Western Wall tunnel, which previous Prime Minister Shimon Peres had decided to postpone for the sake of peace. This caused three days of unrest caused by the Palestinians, resulting in twelve Israelis and one hundred Palestinians dead. In January 1997, Netanyahu signed the Hebron Protocol with the Palestinian Authority, which resulted in the redeployment of Israeli forces in Hebron and the change to civil authority in much of the area for the Palestinian Authority.

Over time, the lack of progress in the peace process led to new negotiations that produced the River Wye Memorandum in 1998, which detailed the steps to be taken by the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to implement the previous Interim Peace Agreement. 1995. It was signed by Netanyahu and the president of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, and on November 17, 1998, the Knesset approved it by 75 in favor and 19 against. As Prime Minister Netanyahu stressed a "three no[s]" policy: No withdrawal from the Golan Heights, no discussion of the Jerusalem case, no negotiations under any preconditions.

During his mandate, Netanyahu also began a process of economic liberalization, taking steps towards a free market economy. Under his supervision, the government began selling its shares in banks and large state-owned companies. Netanyahu also abolished all of Israel's strict currency controls, allowing Israelis to take an unlimited amount of money out of the country, open foreign bank accounts, hold foreign currency, and invest freely in other countries.

Throughout his term, Netanyahu was opposed by Israel's left-wing political wing and lost support from the right because of his concessions to the Palestinians in Hebron and elsewhere, and because of his negotiations with Arafat. in general. Netanyahu fell out of favor with the Israeli public after a long chain of scandals involving his marriage and corruption cases. In 1997, Israeli police recommended that Netanyahu be indicted on charges of corruption and influence peddling. He was accused of appointing an attorney general who would reduce the charges and prosecutors determined there was insufficient evidence to go to trial. In 1999, Netanyahu faced another scandal when the Israel Police recommended that he be tried for $100,000 corruption. on free services from a government contractor; Israel's attorney general decided not to prosecute him, citing difficulties with the evidence.

After being defeated by Ehud Barak in the 1999 Israeli general election, Netanyahu temporarily retired from politics. He subsequently served as a senior consultant with Israeli communications equipment developer BATM for two years.

The political crisis and recovery (2000-2003)

With the fall of Barak's government in late 2000, Netanyahu expressed his desire to return to politics. By law, Barak's resignation was supposed to lead to elections for only the position of prime minister. Netanyahu insisted that a general election be held, arguing that otherwise it would be impossible to have a stable government. Netanyahu ultimately decided not to run for prime minister, a move that would facilitate the surprising rise to power of Ariel Sharon, who at the time was considered less popular than Netanyahu. In 2002, after the Israeli Labor Party left the coalition and vacated the position of foreign minister, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appointed Netanyahu as chancellor. Netanyahu challenged Sharon for the leadership of the Likud party, but failed. He was able to defeat him.

On September 9, 2002, a scheduled Netanyahu speech at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada was canceled after hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters overwhelmed security and broke glass windows. Netanyahu was not present at the protest, having remained at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal for its entire duration. He later accused the activists of supporting terrorism and "crazy fanaticism." Weeks later, on October 1, 2002, about 200 protesters gathered outside Heinz Hall following Netanyahu's appearance in Pittsburgh, although police, Israeli security and a SWAT unit allowed his speeches to continue in the center of the hall and the Duquesne Club, as well as in the suburbs of Robert Morris University.

On September 12, 2002, Netanyahu testified (under oath as a private citizen) before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the United States House of Representatives regarding the nuclear threat posed by the Iraqi regime: "No "There is no doubt that Saddam is seeking and is working and is moving towards the development of nuclear weapons, there is no doubt at all," he said. "And there is no doubt that once it achieves that, history will immediately change." Netanyahu and other high-ranking officials from different countries had suspected that Iraq could develop nuclear capability, as the country began to build a program of a nuclear power plant in 1959 with help from the Soviet Union, but Israeli airstrikes had destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 (see Operation Opera).

Minister of Finance (2003-2005)

After Israel's 2003 legislative election, in what many observers considered a surprise move, Sharon offered the Foreign Ministry to Silvan Shalom and the Finance Ministry to Netanyahu. Some experts speculate that Sharon made the decision because he considered Netanyahu a political threat given his proven effectiveness as foreign minister, and that he therefore placed him in the finance ministry at a time of economic uncertainty, which could diminish Netanyahu's popularity.. Netanyahu accepted the new position after Sharon agreed to be given an unprecedented level of independence in running the ministry.^{[citation needed]}

As Finance Minister, Netanyahu pledged an economic plan aimed at restoring Israel's economy from its lowest point during the Second Intifada. The plan implied a move towards greater liberalization of markets, although it was not without criticism. Netanyahu passed several reforms to several long-unresolved issues, including a major overhaul of the banking system. However, opponents of the Labor Party (and even some within his own Likud) saw Netanyahu's policies as attacks. "Thatcher" to Israel's revered social safety net.

As Finance Minister, Netanyahu dedicated himself to a major reform of the Israeli economy. He instituted a program to end welfare dependency by requiring people to apply for jobs or training. He reduced the size of the public sector, reformed and simplified the tax system, and attacked monopolies and cartels to increase competition. As the Israeli economy began booming and unemployment fell significantly, Netanyahu was widely credited by commentators for having performed an economic miracle toward the end of his term. The reform was credited by commentators as having significantly improved performance. later economic of Israel.

Netanyahu threatened to resign from office in 2004 unless the Gaza withdrawal plan was put to a referendum. He later modified the ultimatum and voted for the program in the Knesset, indicating immediately afterwards that he would resign unless a referendum was held within 14 days. He submitted his resignation letter on August 7, 2005, shortly before The Israeli cabinet approved the initial phase of the withdrawal from Gaza by 17 votes in favor and 5 against.

Leader of Likud and the opposition (2005-2009)

Following Sharon's withdrawal from Likud, Netanyahu was one of several candidates vying for the party's leadership. His last attempt had been in September 2005, when he had attempted to hold early primaries for the position of head of the Likud party, when the political group withdrew from the prime minister's office, thereby effectively pushing out Ariel Sharon. out of office. According to Netanyahu, the Likud was becoming "a pacifist and left-wing party." After this announcement, Sharon went on to say about Netanyahu that he "fled from his responsibilities by resigning" and that "he is prone to losing his cool and is not qualified to lead the country." The party rejected this initiative, not advancing the Likud primaries.

Netanyahu again took the leadership, on December 20, 2005, with 47% of the primary votes, in contrast to 32% for Silvan Shalom and 15% for Moshe Feiglin. In the Knesset elections of March 2006, Likud took third place behind Kadima and the Labor Party, and Netanyahu served as head of the opposition. On August 14, 2007, Netanyahu was re-elected as Likud chairman and its candidate for the position of Prime Minister with 73% of the vote, against far-right candidate Moshe Feiglin and World Likud Chairman Danny Danon. He opposed the 2008 Israel-Hamas ceasefire, as did others in the Knesset opposition. Specifically, Netanyahu declared: "This is not appeasement, it is an Israeli agreement to rearmament Hamas [...] What are we getting for this?"

In the first half of 2008, doctors removed a small colon polyp that turned out to be benign.

Following Livni's election to head Kadima following Olmert's resignation as prime minister, Netanyahu refused to join the coalition Livni was trying to form and supported calling for new elections, which were held in February 2009. Netanyahu was the Likud candidate for prime minister in Israel's 2009 legislative election, which took place on February 10 of that year, alongside Tzipi Livni, the government's previously appointed acting prime minister. of Ólmert, but who had been unable to form a coalition for a viable government. Opinion polls showed Likud in the lead, but with a third of Israeli voters undecided.

In the election itself, Likud won second place in number of seats, being surpassed by Livni's party by one seat. One possible explanation for Likud's relatively poor performance is that some supporters of the political group defected to Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu. Netanyahu, however, claimed victory on the basis that right-wing parties won the majority of seats, and on February 20, 2009, he was appointed by Israeli President Shimon Peres to succeed Ehud Ólmert as Prime Minister., and began negotiations to form a government coalition.

Although right-wing parties won a majority of 65 seats in the Knesset, Netanyahu preferred a broader centrist coalition and turned to his rivals from Kadima, chaired by Tzipi Livni, to join his government. This time it was Livni's turn to refuse to participate, with the difference of opinion on how to carry out the peace process as the stumbling block. Netanyahu managed to attract a smaller rival, the Labor Party, chaired by Ehud Barak, to join his government, giving it a certain centrist tone. Netanyahu presented his cabinet for the Knesset's "vote of confidence" on March 31, 2009. The 32nd government received approval that day by a majority of 69 deputies to 45 (with five abstentions) and its members They took an oath.

Prime Minister (2009-2021)

Second period (2009-2013)

In 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed support for the creation of a Palestinian state, a solution not supported by Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom she had previously promised United States cooperation. Upon the arrival of Obama administration special envoy George Mitchell, Netanyahu said that any progress in negotiations with the Palestinians should be conditional on the Palestinians recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. US President Barack Obama told Netanyahu that A two-state solution was a priority and called for stopping settlement growth, while Netanyahu refused to support the creation of a Palestinian state and declared that Israel has the right to continue settlement construction.

During Obama's speech in Cairo on June 4, 2009, in which the American president addressed the Muslim world, Obama declared, among other things, that "the United States does not accept the legitimacy of more Israeli settlements.". After Obama's speech, Netanyahu immediately called a special government meeting. On June 14, ten days after the speech, Netanyahu gave a speech at Bar-Ilan University in which he approved a "demilitarized Palestinian state", although he said that Jerusalem should remain the unified capital of Israel. Netanyahu declared that he would accept a Palestinian state if Jerusalem remained the united capital of Israel, if the Palestinians did not have an army and gave up their demand for a right of return. He also argued for the right of a "natural growth" of existing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, while his attitude was permanent until further negotiation. A senior Palestinian official, Sereb Ereket, said the speech had “closed the door on a permanent state of negotiations,” due to Netanyahu's statements on Jerusalem, refugees and settlements.^{[citation needed ]}

Three months into his term, Netanyahu noted that his cabinet had already achieved several notable successes, such as the establishment of an active national unity government and broad consensus for a "two-state solution." A survey A July 2009 Ha'aretz survey found that most Israelis supported Netanyahu's government, giving him a personal approval rating of around 49%. Netanyahu lifted checkpoints at the Western Bank with the aim of allowing freedom of movement and a flow of imports; a step that led to an economic boost in the West Bank. In 2009, Netanyahu welcomed the Arab Peace Initiative (also known as the "Saudi peace initiative") and praised a call from Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to normalize relations with Israel. In August 2009, Abbas stated that he would be willing to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly, where Netanyahu had accepted President Obama's invitation to a "tripartite summit," although he stated that this would not necessarily lead to negotiations. Netanyahu reported at a crucial moment in these agreements that it was reported that they would include a commitment on permission to continue settlement construction already approved at the Bank. West in exchange for stopping all construction of new settlements thereafter, as well as continuing construction in East Jerusalem, and at the same time stopping the demolition of the homes of the Arab inhabitants there. On September 4, 2009, It was reported that Netanyahu would agree to the settlers' political demands to approve more settlement construction before a temporary settlement agreement would take place. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs On September 7, 2009, Netanyahu left his office without informing where he was going. directed. The Prime Minister's military secretary, Major General Meir Kalifi, later reported that Netanyahu had visited a security center in Israel. Different news agencies reported several disparate stories about where he was. On September 9, 2009, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the Israeli leader had made a secret flight to Moscow to try to persuade Russian officials not to sell S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran. News headlines branded Netanyahu a "liar" and dubbed the affair a "fiasco." It was later reported that Netanyahu's military secretary was fired over the matter. The Sunday Times reported that the trip was made to name Russian scientists whom Israel considers who are inciting Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program.

On September 24, 2009, in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Netanyahu said that Iran represents a threat to world peace and that it is the world organization's responsibility to prevent the Islamic Republic obtain nuclear weapons. Waving the blueprints of Auschwitz and invoking the memory of his own relatives murdered by the Nazis, Netanyahu delivered an impassioned and public retort to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's questioning of the Holocaust, asking: "Are you not ashamed? »

In response to pressure from the Obama administration urging the parties to resume peace talks, on November 25, 2009, Netanyahu announced a partial 10-month plan to halt settlement construction. The announced partial halt had no significant effect on settlement construction, according to an analysis by Israel's leading newspaper Ha'aretz. US special envoy George Mitchell said: "While the United States shares the concerns Arabs about the limitations of Israel's gesture, which are the greatest that any Israeli government has ever placed." In his announcement, Netanyahu called the measure "a painful step that will encourage the peace process," and urged the Palestinians to respond. The Palestinians rejected the call, stating that the gesture was "insignificant" since thousands of settlement buildings had recently been approved in the West Bank and were still being built, and there was no stoppage of settlements in East Jerusalem.

In March 2010, the Israeli government approved the construction of an additional building of 1,600 apartments in a large Jewish housing development in northern East Jerusalem, called Ramat Shlomo despite the position of the current United States government United States that such an act would frustrate peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The Israeli government's announcement came during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden, and the US government subsequently issued a strong condemnation of the plan. Netanyahu later issued a statement that all previous Israeli governments had continually allowed construction. in the neighborhood, and that certain neighborhoods such as Ramat Shlomo and Gilo have always been included as part of Israel in any final settlement plan that has been proposed by both sides to date. Netanyahu regretted the timing of the announcement, but stated that " "Our policy on Jerusalem is the same policy followed by all Israeli governments for 42 years and has not changed."

In September 2010, Netanyahu agreed to enter into direct talks, mediated by the Obama administration, with the Palestinians for the first time in a long time. The ultimate goal of these direct talks is to forge the framework of an official "status of settlements" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by forming a two-state solution for the Jewish people and the Palestinian people. On September 27, after ending the 10-month construction halt plan, the Israeli government approved new construction in the West Bank, as well as in East Jerusalem. Upon retiring from his position in July 2011, the former Secretary of Defense American Robert Gates said Netanyahu was ungrateful to the United States, endangering Israel. In response, Netanyahu's Likud party defended itself, saying that most Israelis supported the prime minister and that he had broad support in the U.S. In 2011, social justice protests broke out across Israel. Hundreds of thousands of people protested the high cost of living across the country. In response, Netanyahu appointed the Trajtenberg Committee, headed by Professor Manuel Trajtenberg, to examine the problems and propose solutions. The committee presented recommendations to reduce the high cost of living in September 2011. Although Netanyahu promised to push the proposed reforms through the one-piece cabinet, differences within his coalition resulted in the reforms being adopted gradually.

In 2012, Netanyahu initially planned to call early elections, but subsequently oversaw the creation of a highly controversial national unity government in Israel, until the 2013 national elections. In May 2012, Netanyahu officially recognized the Palestinians' right to their own state, although as before he declared that it would have to be demilitarized. On October 25, 2012, Netanyahu and his Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced that their respective political parties, Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu, had merged and that together they would compete on a single ballot for the Israeli elections of January 22, 2013.

Third period (2013-2015)

The 2013 election found Netanyahu's Likud Beiteinu coalition having 11 fewer seats than the separate Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu parties before the election. However, as leader of what remained of the largest faction in the Knesset, Israeli President Shimon Peres tasked Netanyahu with the task of forming Israel's thirty-third government. The new coalition included the parties Yesh Atid, the Jewish House and Hatnuah, excluding the ultra-Orthodox parties at the insistence of these first two.

During Netanyahu's third term, he continued his policy of economic liberalization. In December 2013, the Knesset passed the Business Concentration Law, which sought to open Israel's highly concentrated economy to competition to lower consumer prices, reduce income inequality, and increase economic growth. Netanyahu had formed the Rally Committee in 2010, and the bill, which was pushed forward by his government, implemented his recommendations. The new law banned multi-tiered corporate retention structures, in which members of a CEO's family or other affiliated individuals held public companies that were in turn owned by other public companies, and were therefore capable of to participate in price speculation. Under the law, corporations were prohibited from owning more than two levels of publicly traded companies and from operating both financial and non-financial companies. All conglomerates were given four to six years to sell excess holdings. Netanyahu also began a port privatization campaign to break what he sees as the monopoly of Israel Ports Authority workers, in order to lower consumer prices and increase exports. In July 2013, the tender for the construction of private ports in Haifa and Ashdod was published. Netanyahu also pledged to reduce excess bureaucracy and regulations to ease the burden on the industry.

In April 2014, and again in June, Netanyahu spoke of his deep concerns when Hamas and the Palestinian Authority agreed to and then formed a unity government, and was severely critical of both the United States and the governments' decision. Europeans to work with the Palestinian coalition government. He blamed Hamas for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June 2014, and launched a massive search and arrest operation in the West Bank against Hamas members. in particular, and in the following weeks hit 60 targets in Gaza. Exchanges of missiles and rockets between Gaza militants and the Israeli army intensified after the bodies of the teenagers, who had been killed almost immediately since the government had good reason to suspect, they were discovered on June 30, 2014. After several Hamas operatives lost their lives, either in an explosion or by Israeli bombing, Hamas officially declared that it would launch rockets from Gaza towards Israel, and Israel began Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip, formally ended by the November 2012 ceasefire agreement. The prime minister was in several television interviews in the United States and described Hamas as " genocidal terrorists" in an interview on CNN. When asked if the Gazan victims of the operation could spark "a third Intifada," Netanyahu responded that Hamas was working toward that goal.

In October 2014, Netanyahu declared that settlement restrictions were "against American principles," a comment that earned him a strong response from White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, who noted that American values had resulted in Israel receiving not only consistent funding, but also protective technology such as the Iron Dome. Not long after, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic reported that the relationship between Netanyahu and the White House had reached a new low. new low, with the US administration furious over Israel's settlement policies, and Netanyahu expressing disdain for the US administration's reach in the Middle East. Netanyahu explained that he does not accept restrictions on where Jews could live, and said that Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem should be able to buy houses wherever they want. He said he was "baffled" by the US condemnation. «He goes against American values. And it does not bode well for peace. The idea that we would have this ethnic cleansing as a condition for peace, I think is anti-peace."

On December 2, 2014, Netanyahu fired two of his ministers: Finance Minister Yair Lapid, who heads the centrist Yesh Atid party, and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads Hatnuah. The changes led to the dissolution of the government, with new elections called for March 17, 2015.

In January 2015, Netanyahu was invited to address the US Congress. This speech was marked as Netanyahu's third address to a joint session of the US Congress. The day before he announced that he would address Congress, Time reported that he tried to derail a meeting between US lawmakers and the head of Mossad, Tamir Pardo, who sought to warn against the imposition of new sanctions against Iran, a measure that could derail the nuclear talks. In the days before the intervention, on March 3, 2015, the Israeli consul general in the United States "expect[ed] a fierce backlash from American Jewish communities and Israel's allies." Objections included arranging the intervention without the support and commitment of the Obama administration and the timing of the speech, just before Israel's March 17, 2015 election. Seven American Jewish lawmakers met with Ron Dermer, ambassador of Israel in the US, and recommended that Netanyahu meet with lawmakers privately to discuss Iran. In making his speech, Netanyahu declared that he spoke for all Jews around the world, a claim disputed by others in the Jewish community. Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of the Jewish Voice for Peace, declared that “American Jews are dismayed at much of it because of the idea that Netanyahu, or any other Israeli politician – one that we did not elect and do not choose to represent us – pretends to speak for us.

As election day approached, in what was perceived as a final race of the 2015 Israeli elections, Netanyahu responded "indeed" when asked if a Palestinian state would not be established on his watch. He said that supporting a Palestinian state was tantamount to ceding territory to radical Islamic terrorists to attack Israel.

Fourth period (2015-2020)

Although Netanyahu was initially believed to be defeated, he achieved a surprising and resounding victory in the March 18 elections, with the Likud winning 30 seats and becoming the largest party in the Knesset. On March 24, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin officially tasked Netanyahu with forming a new government coalition. Rivlin granted Netanyahu an extension until May 6, 2015 to create a coalition when the negotiations had not yet been finalized. first four weeks of negotiations. He formed a coalition government less than two hours before the deadline: midnight on May 6. His Likud party formed the coalition with the Jewish House, Torah Judaism, Kulanu and Shas.

When a video of police brutality directed at an Ethiopian-born IDF soldier led to sometimes violent demonstrations and protests in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Netanyahu posted: "I was outraged by the photos. "We cannot accept this and we will change things." He held joint meetings with leaders of the Ethiopian-Israeli community and government leaders from various ministries, a separate meeting with the soldier, which was also attended by the minister of internal security and the head of the Israel police.

On May 28, 2015, Netanyahu announced that he would be working for a fifth term, unprecedented in Israel's history, in the upcoming general elections and that he supported the Likud's current process of choosing its members from the candidates for the Knesset.

In August 2015, Netanyahu's government approved a two-year budget that would see agricultural reforms and the reduction of import duties to reduce food prices, deregulation of the approval process in construction to reduce housing costs and accelerate infrastructure construction and financial sector reforms to drive competition and lower fees for financial services.

Corruption cases

At the end of his term, Benjamin Netanyahu was plagued by a series of corruption cases. In December 2016, the case known as Case 1000 broke out, which uncovered numerous luxury gifts received by both Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu from the hands of large businessmen whom he would have favored politically. Shortly after, Case 2000 arose following the discovery of recorded conversations between Netanyahu and Arnon Mozes, director of the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, in which the Israeli prime minister requested favorable editorial coverage in exchange for passing harmful legislation against the main rival newspaper, Israel Hayom. Case 3000 is related to a purchase of German submarines for the Israeli navy that would benefit a number of businessmen related to Benjamin Netanyahu himself. The last of the corruption cases related to Netanyahu was the so-called Case 4000, which involved the prime minister in the application of favorable legislative treatment for the telecommunications company Bezeq in exchange for journalistic coverage. favorable on the popular news portal Walla! On December 2, 2018, the Israeli police recommended Netanyahu's indictment for the crime of bribery. Almost a year later, on November 21, 2019, Israel's attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit formally charged Benjamin Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and abuse of power. On January 28, 2020, Netanyahu became the only prime minister in the history of Israel to be indicted during his term, specifically for fraud. and abuse of power in cases 1000 and 2000 and for bribery, fraud and abuse of power in case 4000.

Fifth period (2020-2021)

Netanyahu continued to serve as prime minister after the April 2019 elections in which no candidate managed to form a government, and the same happened after the September elections of the same year. After a third consecutive election, Netanyahu assumed his fifth term on May 17, 2020.

Netanyhau formed a coalition agreement with Benny Gantz. During the three election campaigns, Gantz had stated that it was necessary to replace Netanyahu, who should not continue serving as prime minister while facing corruption trials. However, in 2020 he formed a coalition with Netanyahu, arguing that it was preferable to avoid a fourth consecutive election and given the need to urgently address the COVID-19 crisis. The agreement was defined as "Rotation Agreement": Gantz would serve as "alternate prime minister" for a year and a half, until November 2021, when Netanyahu and Gantz would exchange their positions as prime minister and alternate prime minister, continuing for another year and a half. The agreement defined the coalition government as an "Equitable Government" (ממשלה פריטטית), establishing that decisions had to be made by consensus between the faction of the parties allied to the prime minister and the faction of the parties allied to the alternate prime minister. Netanyahu's faction included his Likud party and the ultra-Orthodox Shas and Yahadut Hatorah parties. Gantz's faction included his Kajol-Labán party (without Yesh Atid and Télem who opposed the agreement and split from Kajol-Labán) and two members of the Avodá party. The coalition agreement also stipulated that in the event that one of the factions decided to break the agreement and call elections again, the leader of the other faction would be the one who would retain the position of prime minister. However, an exception to this rule was also stipulated: if the national budget was not approved on time, elections would be called without rotating positions between Netanyahu and Gantz. The national budget for the year 2020 does not It was approved and there were elections again in March 2021.

During this period Israel signed agreements to normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Towards the end of this period another confrontation took place between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Leader of the opposition (2021-2022)

After the March 2021 elections, Netanyahu served as leader of the parliamentary opposition during the government of Prime Ministers Naftalí Bennett and Yair Lapid.

Prime Minister (2022-present)

Sixth period

After the November 2022 elections, Netanyahu took over as Prime Minister for a sixth term, starting on December 29, 2022. He spearheaded controversial judicial reforms leading a far-right government that resulted in massive protests in Tel Aviv fearing a democratic erosion. Due to these protests, he decided to postpone these reforms.

Political positions

Economic points of view

Netanyahu has been described as "the defender of the free market." As prime minister, in his first term, he significantly reformed the banking sector, removing barriers to foreign investment, compulsory purchases of government securities and credit straight. As Minister of Finance (2003-2005), Netanyahu unveiled a major overhaul of the Israeli economy. He introduced a jobs and welfare program, led a privatization program, reduced the size of the public sector, reformed and simplified the tax system, and passed laws against monopolies and cartels with the aim of increasing competition. Netanyahu extended profits of capital from companies to individuals, allowing him to broaden the tax base while reducing income taxes. As the Israeli economy began booming and unemployment fell significantly, Netanyahu was widely recognized by commentators for having performed an economic miracle towards the end of his term. Direct investment in the Israeli economy had increased annually by 380%. On the other hand, his critics have characterized his economic views as inspired by the Margaret Thatcher's "popular capitalism."

Netanyahu defines capitalism as "the ability to have individual initiative and competence to produce goods and services for profit, but not to exclude anyone from trying to do the same." He says his points view were developed while working as an economic consultant for the Boston Consulting Group: “It was the first time that the Boston Consulting Group looked at governments and worked for them. They wanted to make a strategic plan for the Swedish government. I was in that case, and I looked at other governments. So I went around to other governments in Europe in 1976 and was looking at Britain. I was looking in France. I was looking at other countries, and I could see that they were hampered by concentrations of power that prevented competition. And I thought, hmm, as bad as they are, ours was worse because we had very little room for private sector competition to the extent that we had government-controlled companies or union-controlled companies, and so we didn't really get competition or growth (...) And I said, well, if I ever have the opportunity, I'm going to change that."

Opinions on the fight against terrorism

In addition to having participated in counter-terrorism operations during his service in the army, Netanyahu has published three books on the subject. In them, he identifies terrorism as a form of totalitarianism, writing: "The greater the objective of the attack, from any connection, to the grievance stated by the terrorists, the greater the terror. (...) However, for terrorism to have any impact, it is precisely the disconnection, the lack of any possible involvement or the ‹complicity› of the chosen victims of the cause that the terrorists try to attack, produces the desired fear. The underlying message of terrorism is that every member of society is 'guilty', that anyone can be a victim, and therefore no one is safe. (...) In fact, the methods reveal the totalitarian strain that runs through all terrorist groups. (...) It is not just that the terrorists' ends are not successful in justifying the means they choose; His choice of means indicates what his true ends are. Far from being freedom fighters, terrorists are the precursors of tyranny. (...) Terrorists use techniques of violent coercion in order to achieve a regime of violent coercion.

Netanyahu warns that "[t]he problem with active counterterrorism activities (...) is that they do constitute a substantial intrusion into the lives of those being monitored." He believes there is a balance between civil liberties and security, which should depend on the level of sustained terrorist attacks in a country. During periods of sustained attack, there must be a shift towards security, due to "the monstrous violation of personal rights, which is the vast number of victims of terror and their families." But this must be reviewed regularly, with an emphasis on the surveillance of civil liberties and individual privacy wherever and whenever security considerations permit: "The concern of civil liberties advocates about possible infringements on the rights of innocent citizens is well placed, and all "The additional powers granted to the security services must require annual renewal by the legislator, this in addition to judicial supervision of actions taken in the field."

Advises stricter immigration laws as an essential tool to preventively combat terrorism: «This era of free-for-all immigration must be brought to an end. An important aspect of taking control of the immigration situation is stricter background checks on potential immigrants, along with the real possibility of deportation.

It also warns that it is essential that governments do not confuse terrorists with legitimate political groups that may or may not hold extremist views, but advance their positions through debate and argument: "Democracies have its share of anti-immigrant and anti-establishment parties, as well as advocates of nationalism or extreme internationalism. (...) [They] are often the genuinely convinced participants of democracy, accepting its basic rules and the defense of its central principles. These can and must be distinguished from the tiny splinters on the absolute margins of democratic society, which may endorse many similar ideas, but which use them as a pretext to leave the rubric of the democratic system.

LGBT Rights

Netanyahu supports equal rights before the law for LGBT citizens, stating: "Every person's struggle to be recognized as equal before the law is a long struggle, and there is still a long way to go. (...) I am proud that Israel is one of the most open countries in the world in relation to the discourse of the LGBT community.

Oslo Accords

Netanyahu opposed the Oslo accords from their inception. During his tenure as prime minister in the late 1990s, Netanyahu systematically reneged on commitments made by previous Israeli governments as part of the Oslo peace process, leading US peace envoy Dennis Ross to note that "not even President Clinton nor Secretary [of State Madeleine] Albright have believed that Bibi had any real interest in the pursuit of peace." In a 2001 video, Netanyahu, reportedly unaware that he was being recorded, said: "They asked me before the elections if I honor them [the Oslo agreements]. I said yes, but... I am going to interpret the agreements in a way that allows me to put an end to this galloping advance to the borders of '67. How do we do it? Nobody said that they were defined as military zones. Defined military zones are security zones; As far as I'm concerned, the entire Jordan Valley is a defined military zone. Let's discuss it." However, this is clearly consistent with Yitzhak Rabin's October 1995 statement in the Knesset on the ratification of the provisional Oslo accords: "B. The security border of the State of Israel is located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest sense of the term.

Before his second term as prime minister

Netanyahu had previously called the US-backed peace talks a 'waste of time', while refusing to commit to the two-state solution like other Israeli leaders, until a speech in June 2009. He made repeated public statements advocating an "economic peace" approach, that is, an approach based on economic cooperation and joint effort rather than continued dispute over political and diplomatic issues. This is in line with many significant ideas of the Valley of Peace plan. He raised these ideas during conversations with former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Netanyahu continued to advocate these ideas as the Israeli elections approached. Netanyahu noted that:

At this time, the peace talks are based on one thing, only in the peace talks. It doesn't make sense at this time to talk about the most compelling issue. It is or Jerusalem or nothing, or the right to return or nothing. That has led to failure and is likely to lead to failure again. (...) We must make economic peace together with a political process. That means that we need to strengthen the moderate parts of the Palestinian economy by delivering rapid growth in these areas, the rapid economic growth that gives it a peace-sharing for ordinary Palestinians.

In January 2009, before the February 2009 Israeli elections, Netanyahu informed Middle East envoy Tony Blair that he would continue the policy of the Israeli governments of Ariel Sharon and Ehud Ólmert by expanding settlements in Judea. and Samaria, in contravention of the Road Map, but without building new ones.

Bar Ilán speech

On June 14, 2009, Netanyahu delivered a seminar speech at Bar Ilan University (also known as the "Bar Ilan speech"), to the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, which was broadcast live on Israel and in parts of the Arab world, on the issue of the Middle East peace process. He first endorsed the idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Netanyahu's speech could be seen in part as a response to Obama's June 4 speech in Cairo. Yedioth Ahronoth claimed that Obama's words had "resonated through the corridors of Jerusalem."

As part of his proposal, Netanyahu demanded the complete demilitarization of the proposed state, with no army, rockets, missiles, or control of its airspace, and said that Jerusalem would be indivisible Israeli territory. He stated that Palestinians must recognize Israel as the Jewish national state with an indivisible Jerusalem. He rejected a right of return for Palestinian refugees, saying: "any demand for resettlement of Palestinian refugees within Israel undermines the continued existence of Israel as the State of the Jewish people." He also stated that a complete halt to settlement construction in the West Bank, as required by the Road Map of the 2003 peace proposal, was not possible and expansions would be limited based on "natural growth" of the population, including immigration, without taking new territories. However, Netanyahu stated that he accepted the Road Map proposal. He did not discuss whether the settlements should be part of Israel after the peace negotiations, simply stating that "the issue will be discussed."

In response to US President Barack Obama's remarks in his Cairo speech, Netanyahu commented, "There are those who say that if the Holocaust had not occurred, the State of Israel would never have been established. But I tell you that if the State of Israel had been established earlier, the Holocaust would not have happened. He also said, "this is the homeland of the Jewish people, this is where our identity was forged." He said he would be willing to meet with any "Arab leader" for negotiations without preconditions, specifically mentioning Syria, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Overall, the address represented a new position by the Netanyahu government in the peace process.

Some right-wing members of Netanyahu's ruling coalition criticized his speech for the creation of a Palestinian state; maintaining that all land should be under Israeli sovereignty. Likud MP Danny Danon said Netanyahu was going "against the Likud platform", while Jewish House MP Uri Orbach said it had "dangerous implications". Opposition Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni commented after the speech she thinks Netanyahu doesn't actually believe in the two-state solution at all; she thought he only said what he said as a mock response to international pressure. Peace Now criticized the speech, highlighting the fact that, in the group's view, it did not refer to the Palestinians as equal partners in the peace process. Peace Now Secretary General Yariv Oppenheimer said: "It's a repeat of Netanyahu in his first term."

On August 9, 2009, speaking at the opening of Netanyahu's government meeting, he reiterated his demands to the Palestinians: "We want an agreement with two factors, the first of which is the recognition of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people and (the second is) a security agreement.

Arab reaction

Netanyahu's "Bar Ilan speech" provoked mixed reactions from the international community. The Palestinian National Authority rejected Netanyahu's conditions for a Palestinian state. Diplomat Saeb Erekat said: "Netanyahu's speech closed the door to the permanent status of the negotiations." Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said it reflected a "racist and extremist ideology" and called on Arab nations for "the strongest form of opposition." Palestinian Islamic Jihad called it "misleading" and, like Hamas demanded the strongest opposition to Israel from Arab nations. According to The Jerusalem Post, some leaders advocated for a third Intifada in response to the speech. The Arab League rejected the speech, declaring in a statement that "We Arabs will not concessions regarding the Jerusalem and refugee issues," and that "we know their history and style of evasion," adding that the Arab League would not recognize Israel as a Jewish state. In reference to Netanyahu's demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak commented: "You will not find anyone who can answer that call in Egypt, or anywhere else." Issuing a less forceful response, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that the speech "is not complete" and that it expected another "different Israeli proposal, which is based on the commitment to the two-state solution." Syrian state media condemned the speech and wrote that "Netanyahu has confirmed that he rejects the Arab peace initiative for peace, along with all Security Council initiatives and resolutions for relative peace." Lebanese President Michel Suleiman He called for unity among Arab leaders, saying that "Arab leaders must be more united and must preserve the spirit of resistance to confront Israel's positions regarding the peace process and the issue of Palestinian refugees." He called on the international community to put more pressure on the Israeli government to accept the Arab peace initiative, and stated that Israel still has a will for military confrontation that can be tested in its offensives in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Jordanian Minister of State for Media and Communications Affairs and Government Spokesperson Nabil Sharif issued a statement saying that "the ideas presented by Netanyahu do not meet what was agreed upon by the international community as a starting point for achieving peace." fair and complete in the region.

Iranian reaction

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad referred to the speech as "bad news."

European reaction

The Czech Republic, which held the presidency of the European Union, praised Netanyahu's speech. «In my opinion, this is a step in the right direction. "The acceptance of a Palestinian state was there," said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, whose country held the semi-annual presidency of the EU at the time of the speech. President Barack Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said: The speech was an "important step." US President Obama stated that "this solution can and must guarantee both the security of Israel and the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians for a viable state." Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt stated that "the fact that he uttered the word State is a small step forward." He added that “whether what is mentioned can be defined as a state is a matter of debate.” France praised the speech, but called on Israel to cease settlement construction in the West Bank. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner stated that "I can only welcome the prospect of a Palestinian state outlined by the Prime Minister of Israel." The Russian Foreign Ministry called the speech "a sign of willingness to dialogue", but said that "it does not open the way to the solution of the Palestinian-Israeli problem. The conditions of the Palestinians would be unacceptable.

Peace talks stalled

In 2013, Netanyahu denied that his government agreed to peace talks based on the Green Line. In 2014 he agreed to the US proposal, based on the Green Line, and stated that Jewish settlers were They were to be allowed the option of remaining in their settlements under Palestinian rule. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat criticized Netanyahu, calling him "ideologically corrupt" and a "war criminal."

Unilateral withdrawals

On August 9, 2009, speaking at the opening of his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu promised not to repeat the "mistake" of the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, saying: "We are not going to repeat this mistake. We are not going to create new evacuees," adding that "the unilateral evacuation brought peace and security. Quite the opposite", and that "we want an agreement with two factors, the first of which is the recognition of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people and [the second is] a security solution. In the case of Gaza, both factors were missing. He also said: "We must achieve a turn towards peace with the most moderate partners, we will insist on the recognition of the State of Israel and the demilitarization of the future Palestinian state." In October 2014, Netanyahu said: "We not only We surrender territory, close our eyes and hope for the best. We did it in Lebanon and they gave us thousands of rockets. We did that in Gaza, they gave us Hamas and 15,000 rockets. So we're not going to just repeat that. We wish to see true recognition of the Jewish state and strong security measures in the region. That is the position I have maintained, and it has only become firmer."

Iran

In a March 8, 2007 interview on CNN, Israeli opposition leader Netanyahu stated that there is only one difference between Nazi Germany and the Islamic Republic of Iran, namely that the former entered into a conflict all over the world and then searched for atomic weapons, while the latter first searches for atomic weapons and once he has them, then a world war will start. Netanyahu repeated these statements at a press conference in April 2008. This was similar to his previous statements that "(...) it is 1938, and Iran is Germany, and Iran is racing to arm itself with atomic bombs."

On February 20, 2009, after being invited to be Israel's prime minister, Netanyahu described Iran as the greatest threat Israel has ever faced: "Iran is trying to obtain a nuclear weapon and constitutes the grave threat to our existence since the war of independence." Speaking before the UN General Assembly in New York on September 24, 2009, Netanyahu expressed a different opinion than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the forum, telling those who believe that Tehran is a threat only to Israel, they are wrong. "The Iranian regime," he said, "is motivated by fanaticism (...) They want us to go back to medieval times. The fight against Iran pits civilization against barbarism. "This Iranian regime is fueled by extreme fundamentalism." "By focusing solely on Iran," columnist Yossi Melman speculated that Netanyahu's foreign policy, "(...) pushed the Palestinian issue off the world agenda." After four days of bombing by the Iranian-funded Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Melman asked, "Is it worth starting a crisis with Iran?" Will the Israeli public be able to cope with Iran's response?

By 2012, Netanyahu was reported to have formed a close and confidential relationship with Defense Minister Ehud Barak as the two considered possible Israeli military action against Iran's nuclear facilities, following the establishment in Israel of the Begin doctrine. Both were accused of acting on the "messianic" impulses of Yuval Diskin, former head of the Shin Bet, who within his warmongering rhetoric appealed to "the idiots within Israeli public opinion." Diskin's statements were supported by the former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who had previously said that an attack on Iran was "the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my life." A few weeks later, the RAND Corporation (a leading American think tank that advises the Pentagon) also openly disagreed with Netanyahu's belligerent stance: "In this way, and without naming names, RAND aligned itself with former Mossad chief Meir Dagan and former Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin."

In early 2012, he used the opening ceremony for Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day to warn against the dangers of an Iranian nuclear bomb, saying he was following the example of Jewish leaders during World War II who fought for raising the alarm about the Nazis' genocidal intentions. Israeli academic Avner Cohen accused Netanyahu of showing "contempt" for the Holocaust, placing it for "political use," and former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, also condemned Netanyahu, accusing him of "vulgar manipulation of the memory of the Holocaust." Immediately after the 2012 Burgas bus attack, Netanyahu confirmed that the attack had been carried out in coordination between Hezbollah and Iran.

Netanyahu stated during a meeting on July 29, 2012 that, in his opinion, "all the sanctions and diplomacy so far have not slowed down the Iranian program one bit." And in August, he stated that the United States alone could respond to a massive attack on Israel. On September 28, 2012, Netanyahu gave a speech to the UN General Assembly in which he put himself in front of a "red line" of 90% uranium enrichment, stating that If Iran manages to reach this level, it would become an intolerable risk for Israel. Netanyahu used a cartoon graphic of a bomb to illustrate his point, indicating three stages of uranium enrichment, noting that Iran had already completed the first stage, and stating that "next spring, at the latest next summer at current enrichment rates, [Iran] will have completed medium enrichment and will move to the final phase. "From there, it will be just a few months, possibly a few weeks, before they get enough enriched uranium for the first bomb." Netanyahu gave his speech the day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, an appearance that the American, Canadian and Israeli delegations had deliberately not attended. At the time, according to communications leaked in 2015, Mossad's assessment was that Iran did not appear willing to enrich uranium to levels necessary for a nuclear bomb. In an October 2013 interview with the Persian-language BBC, Netanyahu praised Persia's history and said: "if the Iranian regime has nuclear weapons, the Iranian people will never be free from the dictatorship and will live in eternal servitude."

With the opening of negotiations between the Western powers (5+1) and Iran on its nuclear program at the end of 2014, which Netanyahu himself viewed with skepticism, he stated that he hoped that any nuclear agreement would not allow Tehran remain at the "threshold" of developing nuclear weapons. In his speech in the US Congress, Netanyahu stated that "this agreement is not going to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. It would almost guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, many of them." After the preliminary agreement, he declared that "Israel will not accept an agreement that allows a country that wants to annihilate us to develop nuclear weapons. Furthermore, Israel calls for any final agreement with Iran to include a clear and unambiguous recognition by Tehran of Israel's right to exist. (...) Israel's survival is not negotiable."

Jonathan Pollard

Netanyahu has repeatedly called for the release of Jonathan Pollard, an American serving a life sentence for passing secret documents from the United States to Israel in 1987. Netanyahu has called for his release across several administrations. It was raised the issue at the River Wye Summit in 1998, where he claimed that US President Bill Clinton had privately agreed to release Pollard; Clinton rejected the claim. In 2002, Netanyahu visited Pollard in his prison in North Carolina. The Israeli prime minister maintains contact with Pollard's wife, and has been active in pressuring the Obama administration to release Pollard. Netanyahu has described Pollard as "a big-hearted, proud and true Zionist Jew." Finally, with Donald Trump as president, Jonathan Pollard was released in 2020 after deciding not to expand his house arrest and return to Israel in 2021.

Bank of China terrorist financing case

In 2013, Netanyahu found himself caught between contradictory commitments made to the family of terrorism victim, American Daniel Wultz, and the government of China. Although Netanyahu was reported to have previously promised U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen that Israel would fully cooperate in the Bank of China terrorist financing case in the U.S. District Court, the prime minister reportedly made a contradictory promise. with the Chinese government prior to the state visit to the Asian giant in May 2013. David Boies, lead attorney for the Wultz family, told the Wall Street Journal "Attorney David Boies, lead attorney for the Wultz family, told the Wall Street Journal, "While we respect China's interests and the diplomatic pressure Israel has been under, such interests and pressure cannot be allowed to obstruct the ability of American courts to hear the evidence criticism." In August 2013, Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the House Middle East and South Asia subcommittee, told the Miami Herald that she raised the issue while leading a congressional delegation to Israel, emphasizing the importance of the case to Israeli officials, who have provided the Wultz family with everything they needed for their lawsuit. "I am hopeful that we can bring this case to a conclusion that is satisfactory to the family, but we need the support of the community so that it does not falter at this critical moment," said Ros-Lehtinen.

US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, also spoke on the issue with the Miami Herald: "In South Florida, we all know too well of the tragic circumstances surrounding the cowardly terrorist attack that claimed the innocent life of Daniel Wultz. "I have been working hand in hand with the Wultz family and the State of Israel to ensure that each and every person involved in this terrorist activity, including the Bank of China, pays for their crimes, so that justice is served."

Defense and security

In 2011, Netanyahu arranged for 1,000 prisoners belonging to Hamas and Fatah to be exchanged for Gilad Shalit, including terrorists with "blood on their hands." Israeli authorities estimate that 60% of those who were released "resumed their terrorist attacks." In 2011, the Israeli General Staff concluded that its armed forces could not maintain their battle readiness under Netanyahu's proposed cuts. However Netanyahu decided to cut social programs instead, and pledged to increase the defense budget by around 6%. Despite this, the Israeli army still suffered a reduction of 3.7 million shekels from its projected budget, which could harm its warfighting capabilities. According to a representative of the United States Department of State in November 2011, under the leadership of Netanyahu and Obama, Israel and the United States have enjoyed unprecedented security cooperation.

Under Netanyahu's leadership, the Israeli National Security Council has seen a greater role in foreign policy planning and decision-making.

Asylum seekers

In 2012, the Netanyahu government passed the "Prevention of Infiltration Law," which ordered the automatic detention of all people, including asylum seekers, who entered Israel without permission. Amnesty International called it "an affront to international law." Between 2009 and 2013, approximately 60,000 people from various African countries entered Israel. Netanyahu said that "this phenomenon is very serious and threatens the social structure of society.", our national security and our national identity." Many of these immigrants were taken to detention camps in the Negev desert. When Israel's Supreme Court declared the "Prevention of Infiltration Law" illegal for allowing the immediate and indefinite detention of asylum seekers from Africa, Netanyahu called for new legislation to remedy the Supreme Court ruling.

Israeli Arab minority

About 20% of the Israeli population is of Arab origin. Benjamin Netanyahu's stance toward this minority group has at times been aggressive and hostile, especially around elections. For example, on March 17, 2015, parliamentary election day, Netanyahu urged his voters through his Facebook page to go to the polls saying that "Arabs are coming to vote in droves". These statements were branded racist by numerous members of the opposition and by various media outlets, and by himself Netanyahu apologized for them. The Joint List rejected his apologies, saying they were "empty words" "Imagine a prime minister or president in any democracy who warns that his government is in danger because, for example, voters blacks flock to the polls. It's horrendous, right?'. The Washington Post commented that 'it's surprising that a sitting prime minister regrets high voter turnout.' Barack Obama criticized him, saying that ';That kind of rhetoric is the opposite of what are the best Israeli traditions. The US State Department regretted statements that appeared to "marginalize a portion of Israeli voters. Also The president of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, regretted Netanyahu's statements.

In the April 2019 elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party installed hidden video surveillance cameras in polling stations in the Palestinian Arab community. Although the stated objective of this measure was to combat alleged electoral fraud by the Although no evidence was ever given, the company responsible for installing the cameras boasted on its website that it had reduced the participation of Palestinian Arab voters to below 50%. When new elections took place in September of this same year, year, Israel's attorney general ruled that it was illegal to install cameras in polling stations. Then, Netanyahu announced that he had created squads of thousands of volunteers who would monitor outside Palestinian Arab polling stations. Yet, surprisingly, on the day of the elections announced that it had installed thousands of cameras with facial recognition systems at the entrance to polling stations in Palestinian Arab communities, although it later acknowledged that the cameras did not have this technology.

Shortly before the April 2019 elections, Netanyahu defended the recently approved Nation State Law by arguing that "Israel only belongs to the Jews, not to all its citizens,", in reference to the Arab minority "The other peoples, nationalities and minorities already have national representation in other States," he added. Media such as El País considered these statements discriminatory towards the Arab community of Palestinian origin. In the days before the September elections of that same year he declared that "the Arabs want to annihilate us all: women, children and men.

At the end of 2019, in the heat of the electoral race, Netanyahu described a hypothetical government supported by the Joint List, the main party of the Israeli Arab minority, as "an existential risk for Israel." elections on March 2, 2020, Netanyahu appeared on television along with the rest of the parliamentarians of his bloc and declared that he had won given that, in his opinion, the right-wing bloc obtained 58 deputies and the left-wing bloc 47, while The 15 deputies of the Joint List "are not part of this equation, that is the will of the people." Various Israeli and international analysts interpreted these words as another step in the delegitimization of this part of the Israeli population.

Private life

Family

Netanyahu comes from a family of great achievements. Related to Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna (Gaon of Vilna) on his paternal side, Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv, the son of Prof. Benzion Netanyahu (original name, Mileikowsky) and Tzila (Cela; née Segal). His mother was born in 1912 in Petah Tikva, then part of the future British Mandate of Palestine that eventually became Israel. Although all of his grandparents were born in the Russian Empire (now Belarus, Lithuania and Poland), his mother's parents emigrated to Minneapolis in the United States.

Netanyahu's father, Benzion, was a professor of Jewish history at Cornell University, editor of the Hebrew Encyclopedia, and an important advisor to Ze'ev Jabotinsky, and remained active in research and writing into his nineties. Regarding the Palestinian population, he stated: "So that they will not be able to wage [any more] war with us, it will include withholding food from Arab cities, avoiding education, shutting off electrical power and more. They will not be able to exist, and they will flee from here. But everything depends on the war, and if we are going to win the battles with them. Netanyahu has dismissed those who dismiss the similarities between his unrelentingly hardline views and those of his late father as "cheap psychology." For example, David Remnick has written: "To understand Bibi, you have to understand the father."

Netanyahu's paternal grandfather was Nathan Mileikowsky, a leading Zionist rabbi and fundraiser for the Jewish National Fund. Netanyahu's older brother, Yonatan, was killed in Uganda during the Entebbe operation in 1976. His younger brother, Iddo, is radiologist and writer. All three brothers served in the Israel Defense Forces' reconnaissance unit, Sayeret Matkal.

Marriages and relationships

Netanyahu has been married three times. Netanyahu's first marriage was to Miriam Weizmann, whom he met in Israel. Weizmann lived near his brother Yonatan's apartment in Jerusalem, where Netanyahu lived during his military service. By the time Netanyahu's time in service had ended, Weizmann had completed his own military service and graduated in Chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1972, both went to study in the United States, where Weizmann enrolled at Brandeis University, while Netanyahu studied at MIT. They married shortly after. The couple had a daughter, Noa (born April 29, 1978). In 1978, while Weizmann was pregnant, Netanyahu met a non-Jewish British student named Fleur Cates in the university library, and began a romance. His marriage ended in divorce soon after, when his wife Miriam discovered the deception. In 1981, Netanyahu married Cates, and she converted to Judaism, but the couple divorced in 1984.

Netanyahu met his third wife, Sara Ben-Artzi, while working as a flight attendant on an El Al flight from New York to Israel. Sara was working as a flight attendant, while she was finishing a master's degree in psychology. The couple married in 1991 and have two sons: Yair (born 1991), a former IDF Communications Unit soldier, and Avner (1994), a national Bible champion and winner of the IDF National Bible Contest. Youth in Kiryat Shmona.

In 1993, Netanyahu confessed on live television to having had an affair with Ruth Bar, his public relations adviser, claiming that a political rival had planted a secret video camera that had recorded him in a compromising sexual situation with her and that he had been threatened with leaking the tape to the press unless he dropped out of the Likud leadership race. Benjamin and Sara repaired their marriage, and Netanyahu was elected to the Likud leadership. In 1996, there were media reports of his 20-year friendship with Katherine Price-Mondadori, an Italian-American woman. During the 1990s, Netanyahu criticized this press intrusion into his private life, claiming that his political rivals (including David Levy) had hired spies in order to try to gather evidence of alleged affairs; although it was noted that the Israeli public (like the French public) is generally not interested in the private life of his politicians and prefers it to remain intimate.

Netanyahu has four grandchildren, all from his first-born daughter's marriage. On October 1, 2009, her daughter, Noa Netanyahu-Roth, married to Daniel Roth, gave birth to a boy, Shmuel. In 2011, Noa and her husband Daniel had a second son named David. They have subsequently been parents of two daughters, in February 2016 and in December 2018.

Relations with foreign leaders

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Netanyahu originally met when Sarkozy was mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, after meeting through a mutual friend. The two had dined together in Paris and Israel. During the 2011 G-20 summit in Cannes, Sarkozy was heard telling US President Barack Obama: "I can't stand Netanyahu, he's a liar." To which Obama reportedly responded, "You're sick of him, but I have to deal with him every day." According to a journalist who was present, all the journalists covering the event agreed among themselves not to publish the details of the incident.

Aside from his lukewarm relationship with the Obama administration, Netanyahu has close ties to the US Republican Party and its leadership in the House of Representatives. Netanyahu and 2012 US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney have a close relationship dating back to their work together at the Boston Consulting Group in the mid-1970s. US Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has been a friend of Netanyahu for many years. In November 2011 and in the 2012 US presidential debate, Biden said that the relationship has lasted 39 years. Netanyahu noted in March 2010, during a joint statement with Biden during his visit to Israel, that their friendship had begun nearly three decades earlier.

In October 2014, a senior Obama administration official called Netanyahu a "coward" for his stance on Iran. Secretary of State John Kerry called Netanyahu to clarify that "such statements are an unacceptable and damaging disgrace." and "do not reflect the position of the United States." Netanyahu responded by saying: "I am being attacked because of my determination to defend Israel's interests. Israel's security is not important to those who attack me anonymously and personally." Due to visible disagreements between Netanyahu and members of the Obama administration, observers have characterized the relationship as a crisis in October 2014. The relationship between Netanyahu and the Obama administration had become problematic enough that Jeffrey Goldberg reported in November 2014 that in his conversations with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, they indicated that Israel would wait until a new president of the United States was elected before attempting to repair the relationship with the White House. An opinion poll conducted in collaboration with the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference showed that the "immense majority" of Israelis believe that their country's relationship with the The US has been damaged as a result of the poor relationship between Obama and Netanyahu.

Literary work

• Netanyahu, Benjamin (1981). International Terrorism: Challenge and Response. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-0878558940.
• Netanyahu, Benjamin (1987). Terrorism: How the West Can Win. Avon. ISBN 978-0380703210.
• Netanyahu, Benjamin (1995). Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0374154929.
• Netanyahu, Benjamin (1999) [1993]. A Durable Peace: Israel and Its Place Among the Nations. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-0446523066.