Benjamin Netanyahu

About the Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahuis an Israeli politician, serving as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office in 1996-1999 and 2009-2021. He is chair of the Likud party. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, having served a total of over 16 years.

Born to secular Jewish parents, Netanyahu was raised in West Jerusalem and the United States. He returned to Israel in 1967 to join the Israel Defense Forces and served in the Sayeret Matkal special forces as a captain before being honorably discharged. After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Netanyahu worked for the Boston Consulting Group and moved back to Israel in 1978 to found the Yonatan Netanyahu Anti-Terror Institute. Between 1984 and 1988 Netanyahu was Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. Netanyahu rose to prominence after election as chair of Likud in 1993, becoming leader of the opposition. In the 1996 general election, Netanyahu became the first Israeli prime minister elected directly by popular vote, and its youngest. Netanyahu was defeated in the 1999 election and retired from politics, entering the private sector. He returned and served as minister of foreign affairs and finance, initiating economic reforms, before resigning over the Gaza disengagement plan.

Netanyahu returned to lead Likud in 2005 and was leader of the opposition between 2006 and 2009. After the 2009 legislative election, Netanyahu formed a coalition with other right-wing parties and became prime minister again. He led Likud to victory in the 2013 and 2015 elections. Netanyahu made his closeness to Donald Trump, a friend since the 1980s, central to his appeal from 2016. During Trump’s presidency, the US recognized Jerusalem as capital of Israel, Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and brokered the Abraham Accords, normalization agreements between Israel and the Arab world. Netanyahu has faced criticism over expanding Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, deemed illegal under international law. In 2019, Netanyahu was indicted on charges of breach of trust, bribery and fraud, and relinquished all ministerial posts, except prime minister. The 2018-2022 Israeli political crisis led to a rotation agreement between Netanyahu and Benny Gantz. This collapsed in 2020, leading to a March 2021 election. In June 2021, Netanyahu was removed from the premiership, before returning after the 2022 election.

Netanyahu’s coalition pursued judicial reform, which was met with protests in early 2023. In October 2023, Israel suffered a large-scale attack by Hamas-led Palestinian groups, triggering the Israel-Hamas war. Due to the failure to anticipate the attack, Netanyahu has been criticized for presiding over Israel’s biggest intelligence failure in 50 years, and has faced protests calling for his removal. Netanyahu’s government has been accused of genocide, culminating in the South Africa v. Israel case before the International Court of Justice in December 2023. In May 2024, Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced his intention to apply for an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, and other members of his cabinet, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as part of the ICC investigation in Palestine.