Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu (/ˌnɛtɑːnˈjɑːhuː/;[3] Hebrew: 
Benjamin Netanyahu | |
|---|---|
 Netanyahu in 2018 | |
| 9th Prime Minister of Israel | |
| Assumed office 31 March 2009 | |
| President | |
| Preceded by | Ehud Olmert |
| In office 18 June 1996 – 6 July 1999 | |
| President | Ezer Weizman |
| Preceded by | Shimon Peres |
| Succeeded by | Ehud Barak |
| Chairman of Likud | |
| Assumed office 20 December 2005 | |
| Preceded by | Ariel Sharon |
| In office 3 February 1993 – 6 July 1999 | |
| Preceded by | Yitzhak Shamir |
| Succeeded by | Ariel Sharon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 October 1949 Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Political party | Likud |
| Spouse(s) | Miriam Weizmann
( m. 1972; div. 1978)Fleur Cates
( m. 1981; div. 1984) |
| Children | 3 |
| Parents |
|
| Residence | Beit Aghion, Jerusalem |
| Alma mater |
|
| Occupation |
|
| Signature |  |
| Website | netanyahu.org.il |
| Military service | |
| Nickname(s) | Bibi[1] |
| Allegiance | Israel |
| Branch/service | Israeli Defense Forces |
| Years of service | 1967–73 |
| Rank | Seren (Captain) |
| Unit | Sayeret Matkal |
| Battles/wars | |
| Knessets | 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 |
| Ministerial roles | |
| 1996–97 | Science and Technology |
| 1996–99 | Housing and Construction |
| 2002–03 | Foreign Affairs |
| 2003–05 | Finance |
| 2009–13 | |
| 2012–13 | Foreign Affairs |
| 2013 |
|
| 2014–15 | Communications |
| 2015 | Pensioner Affairs |
| 2015–19 | |
| 2018–19 | Defense[2] |
Born in Tel Aviv to secular Jewish parents, Netanyahu was raised in both Jerusalem and the Philadelphia area of the United States. He returned to Israel immediately upon graduating high school in 1967 to join the Israel Defense Forces shortly after the Six-Day War.[6] Netanyahu became a team leader in the Sayeret Matkal special forces unit[7][8] and took part in many missions, including Operation Gift (1968) and Operation Isotope (1972), during which he was shot in the shoulder. Netanyahu fought on the front lines in the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War in 1973, taking part in special forces raids along the Suez Canal and then leading a commando assault deep into Syrian territory.[9][10] Netanyahu achieved the rank of captain before being discharged. After graduating from MIT with a Bachelor of Science (SB) and a Master of Science (SM), Netanyahu became an economic consultant for the Boston Consulting Group. He moved back to Israel in 1978 to found the Yonatan Netanyahu Anti-Terror Institute, named after his brother Yonatan Netanyahu, who died leading Operation Entebbe.
In 1984, Netanyahu was appointed the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, a role he held until 1988. He was subsequently elected to the Knesset before becoming the leader of Likud in 1993; he then led the party to victory at the 1996 election, becoming Israel's youngest-ever prime minister. After being defeated in the 1999 election, Netanyahu left politics, returning to the private sector. He later served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance in the government of Ariel Sharon, but eventually resigned over disagreements regarding the Gaza disengagement plan. As Finance Minister, Netanyahu initiated major reforms of the Israeli economy that were credited by commentators as having significantly improved Israel's subsequent economic performance.[11]
Netanyahu returned to the leadership of Likud in December 2005 after Sharon stepped down to form a new party, Kadima.[12] Although Likud finished second in the 2009 election to Kadima, Netanyahu was able to form a coalition government with other right-wing parties and was sworn in as Prime Minister for a second time.[13][14][15] He went on to lead Likud to victory in the 2013 and 2015 elections.[16] After the April 2019 election resulted in no party being able to form a government, a second election in 2019 took place. In the September 2019 election, the centrist Blue and White party, led by Benny Gantz, emerged slightly ahead of Netanyahu's Likud; however, neither Netanyahu nor Gantz was able to form a government.[17] After continued political deadlock, this was resolved when Likud and Blue and White reached a coalition agreement following the 2020 Israeli legislative election. Under the terms of the agreement, the premiership would rotate between Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, with Gantz scheduled to succeed Netanyahu in November 2021.[18]
Since December 2016, Netanyahu has been under investigation for corruption by Israeli police and prosecutors.[19] On 21 November 2019, he was indicted on charges of breach of trust, bribery and fraud.[20] Due to the indictment, Netanyahu is legally required to relinquish all of his ministry posts other than the prime minister position.[21][22]
Early life and military career
Netanyahu was born in 1949 in Tel Aviv, Israel, to a predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish family with some Sephardic ancestry, who claim descent from the Vilna Goan.[23][24] His mother, Tzila Segal (1912–2000) was born in Petah Tikva in the Ottoman Empire's Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, and his father, Warsaw-born, Prof. Benzion Netanyahu (nee Mileikowsky) (1910–2012) was an accomplished historian specializing in the Jewish Golden age of Spain. Netanyahu's paternal grandfather, Nathan Mileikowsky was a notable rabbi and zionist writer. When Netanyahu's father emigrated to Israel he hebraized his surname from "Mileikowsky" to "Netanyahu" meaning "God has given".
Netanyahu was the second of three children. He was initially raised and educated in Jerusalem, where he attended Henrietta Szold Elementary School. A copy of his evaluation from his 6th grade teacher Ruth Rubenstein indicated that Netanyahu was courteous, polite, and helpful; that his work was "responsible and punctual"; and that he was friendly, disciplined, cheerful, brave, active, and obedient.[25]
Between 1956 and 1958, and again from 1963 to 1967,[26] his family lived in the United States in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, while father Benzion Netanyahu taught at Dropsie College.[6] Benjamin attended and graduated from Cheltenham High School and was active in the debate club, chess club, and soccer.[6] He and his brother Yonatan grew dissatisfied with a perceived superficial way of life they encountered in the area, including the prevalent youth counterculture movement, literary interpretation focused on individualized feelings, and the liberal sensibilities of the Reform synagogue, Temple Judea of Philadelphia, that the family attended.[6] To this day, he speaks fluent English, with a noticeable Philadelphia accent.[27]
Benjamin Netanyahu, on Sayeret Matkal, (Maariv 2007)[9]
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 special forces unit of the IDF, Sayeret Matkal. He took part in numerous cross-border assault raids during the 1967–70 War of Attrition, rising to become a team-leader in the unit. He was wounded in combat on multiple occasions.[10] He was involved in many other missions, including the 1968 Israeli raid on Lebanon and the rescue of the hijacked Sabena Flight 571 in May 1972, in which he was shot in the shoulder.[28][29] He was discharged from active service in 1972 but remained in the Sayeret Matkal reserves. Following his discharge, he left to study in the United States but returned in October 1973 to serve in the Yom Kippur War.[9][30] He took part in special forces raids along the Suez Canal against Egyptian forces before leading a commando attack deep inside Syrian territory, the details of which remain classified today.[31]
Education
Netanyahu returned to the United States in late 1972 to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After briefly returning to Israel to fight in the Yom Kippur War, he returned to the United States and under the name Ben Nitay, completed an bachelor's degree[32] in architecture[33] in February 1975 and earned a master's degree[32] from the MIT Sloan School of Management in June 1976. Concurrently, he was studying towards a doctorate[30] in political science,[34][35] until his studies were broken off by the death of his brother in Operation Entebbe.[30]
At MIT, Netanyahu studied a double-load, completing a master's degree (that would normally take four years) in only two and a half years, despite taking a break to fight in the Yom Kippur War, and while simultaneously completing a thesis in a graduate course at Harvard.[30] Professor Groisser at MIT recalled: "He did superbly. He was very bright. Organized. Strong. Powerful. He knew what he wanted to do and how to get it done."[30]
At that time he changed his name to Benjamin Ben Nitai (Nitai, a reference to both Mount Nitai and to the eponymous Jewish sage Nittai of Arbela, was a pen name often used by his father for articles).[27] Years later, in an interview with the media, Netanyahu clarified that he decided to do so to make it easier for Americans to pronounce his name. This fact has been used by his political rivals to accuse him indirectly of a lack of Israeli national identity and loyalty.[36]
In 1976, Netanyahu's older brother Yonatan Netanyahu was killed. Yonatan was serving as the commander of Benjamin's former unit, the Sayeret Matkal, and died during the counter-terrorism hostage-rescue mission Operation Entebbe in which his unit rescued more than 100 mostly Israeli hostages hijacked by terrorists and flown to the Entebbe Airport in Uganda.
In 1976, Netanyahu graduated near the top of his class at the MIT Sloan School of Management,[37] and was headhunted to be an economic consultant[38] for 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 that Netanyahu at the time was: "[A] strong personality with a distinct point of view", and says "[w]e can almost speak in shorthand... [w]e share common experiences and have a perspective and underpinning which is similar."[37] Netanyahu said that their "easy communication" was a result of "B.C.G.'s intellectually rigorous boot camp".[37]
In 1978, Netanyahu appeared on Boston local television, under the name of "Ben Nitai", where he argued: "The real core of the conflict is the unfortunate Arab refusal to accept the State of Israel ... For 20 years the Arabs had both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and if self-determination, as they now say, is the core of the conflict, they could have easily established a Palestinian state."[39]
_-_Benjamin_Netanyahu_and_Sorin_Hershko.jpg)
In 1978, Netanyahu returned to Israel. Between 1978 and 1980, he ran the Jonathan Netanyahu Anti-Terror Institute,[26] a non-governmental organization devoted to the study of terrorism; the Institute held a number of international conferences focused on the discussion of international terrorism. From 1980 to 1982, he was director of marketing for Rim Industries in Jerusalem.[40] 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. while Arens was ambassador to the United States, a position he held from 1982 until 1984.[41] During the 1982 Lebanon War, he was called up for reserve duty in Sayeret Matkal and requested to be released from service, preferring to remain in the US and serve as a spokesperson for Israel in the wake of harsh international criticism of the war. He presented Israel's case to the media during the war and established a highly efficient public relations system in the Israeli embassy.[42] Between 1984 and 1988, Netanyahu served as the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.[41] Netanyahu was influenced by Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, with whom he formed a relationship during the 1980s. He referred to Schneerson as "the most influential man of our time".[43][44][45]
It was while living in New York during the 1980s that Netanyahu became friends with Fred Trump, the father of Donald Trump.[46]
Chairman of Likud
Prior to the 1988 Israeli legislative election, Netanyahu returned to Israel and joined the Likud party. In the Likud's internal elections, Netanyahu was placed fifth on the party list. Later on he was elected as a Knesset member of the 12th Knesset, and was appointed as a deputy of the foreign minister Moshe Arens, and later on David Levy. Netanyahu and Levy did not cooperate and the rivalry between the two only intensified afterwards. During the Gulf War in early 1991, the English-fluent Netanyahu emerged as the principal spokesman for Israel in media interviews on CNN and other news outlets. During the Madrid Conference of 1991 Netanyahu was a member of the Israeli delegation headed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. After the Madrid Conference Netanyahu was appointed as Deputy Minister in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.[41]
Following the defeat of the Likud party in the 1992 Israeli legislative elections the Likud party held a primary election in 1993 to select its leader, and Netanyahu was victorious, defeating Benny Begin, son of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and veteran politician David Levy[47] (Sharon initially sought Likud party leadership as well, but quickly withdrew when it was evident that he was attracting minimal support). Shamir retired from politics shortly after the Likud's defeat in the 1992 elections.[48]
Following 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.[49] Netanyahu was the Likud's candidate for Prime Minister in the 1996 Israeli legislative election which took place on 26 May 1996 and were the first Israeli elections in which Israelis elected their Prime Minister directly. Netanyahu hired American Republican political operative Arthur Finkelstein to run his campaign, and although the American style of sound bites and sharp attacks elicited harsh criticism, it proved effective. When Netanyahu won the 1996 election, he became the youngest person in the history of the position and the first Israeli Prime Minister to be born in the State of Israel (Yitzhak Rabin was born in Jerusalem, under the British Mandate of Palestine, prior to the 1948 founding of the Israeli state).
Netanyahu's victory over the pre-election favorite Shimon Peres surprised many. The main catalyst in the downfall of the latter was a wave of suicide bombings shortly before the elections; on 3 and 4 March 1996, Palestinians carried out two suicide bombings, killing 32 Israelis, with Peres seemingly unable to stop the attacks. During the campaign, Netanyahu stressed that progress in the peace process would be based on the Palestinian National Authority fulfilling its obligations–mainly fighting terrorism—and the Likud campaign slogan was, "Netanyahu – making a safe peace". However, although Netanyahu won the election for Prime Minister, Peres's Israeli Labor Party received more seats in the Knesset elections. Netanyahu had to rely on a coalition with the ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and UTJ in order to form a government.
First term as Prime Minister
_-_P.M._BENJAMIN_NETANYAHU_SHAKING_HANDS_WITH_PALESTINIAN_AUTHORITY_CHAIRMAN_YASSER_ARAFAT.jpg)
A spate of suicide bombings reinforced the Likud position for security. Hamas claimed responsibility for most of the bombings. As Prime Minister, Netanyahu raised many questions about many central premises of the Oslo Accords. One of his main points was disagreement with the Oslo premise that the negotiations should proceed in stages, meaning that concessions should be made to Palestinians before any resolution was reached on major issues, such as the status of Jerusalem, and the amending of the Palestinian National Charter. Oslo supporters had claimed that the multi-stage approach would build goodwill among Palestinians and would propel them to seek reconciliation when these major issues were raised in later stages. Netanyahu said that these concessions only gave encouragement to extremist elements, without receiving any tangible gestures in return. He called for tangible gestures of Palestinian goodwill in return for Israeli concessions. Despite his stated differences with the Oslo Accords, Prime Minister Netanyahu continued their implementation, but his Premiership saw a marked slow-down in the peace process.
In 1996, Netanyahu and Jerusalem's mayor Ehud Olmert decided to open an exit in the Arab Quarter for the Western Wall Tunnel, which prior Prime Minister Shimon Peres had instructed to be put on hold for the sake of peace.[50] This sparked three days of rioting by Palestinians, resulting in dozens of both Israelis and Palestinians being killed.[51]
Netanyahu first met Palestinian President Arafat on 4 September 1996. Prior to the meeting, the two leaders spoke by telephone.[52] The meetings would continue through Autumn 1996. On their first meeting, Netanyahu said: "I would like to emphasize that we have to take into account the needs and the requirements of both sides on the basis of reciprocity and the assurance of the security and well-being of both Israelis and Palestinian alike." Arafat said: "We are determined to work with Mr. Netanyahu and with his government."[53] The talks culminated on 14 January 1997, in the signing of the Hebron Protocol.[54] The signing of the Hebron Protocol with the Palestinian Authority resulted in the redeployment of Israeli forces in Hebron and the turnover of civilian authority in much of the area to the control of the Palestinian Authority.
Eventually, the lack of progress of the peace process led to new negotiations which produced the Wye River Memorandum in 1998 which detailed the steps to be taken by the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority to implement the earlier Interim Agreement of 1995. It was signed by Netanyahu and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, and on 17 November 1998, Israel's 120 member parliament, the Knesset, approved the Wye River Memorandum by a vote of 75–19. In a nod to the 1967 Khartoum conference, Prime Minister Netanyahu emphasized a policy of "three no(s)": no withdrawal from the Golan Heights, no discussion of the case of Jerusalem, no negotiations under any preconditions.[55]
In 1997, Netanyahu authorized a Mossad operation to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Jordan, just 3 years after the two countries had signed a peace treaty.[56] The Mossad team, covering as five Canadian tourists, entered Jordan on 27 September 1997 and injected poison into Mashal's ears in a street in Amman.[56] The plot was exposed and two agents were arrested by the Jordanian police while three others hid in the Israeli embassy which was then surrounded by troops.[56] An angry King Hussein demanded Israel to give out the antidote and threatened to annul the peace treaty.[57] Netanyahu relented to the demands after pressure by US President Bill Clinton and ordered the release of 61 Jordanian and Palestinian prisoners including Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.[56] The incident sent the nascent Israeli-Jordanian relations plummeting.[57]
During his term, Netanyahu also began a process of economic liberalization, taking steps towards a free-market economy. Under his watch, the government began selling its shares in banks and major state-run companies. Netanyahu also greatly eased Israel's strict foreign exchange controls, enabling Israelis to take an unrestricted amount of money out of the country, open foreign bank accounts, hold foreign currency, and invest freely in other countries.[58][59]
_-_P.M._Netanyahu_Visiting_the_Western_Wall.jpg)
Throughout his term, Netanyahu was opposed by the political left wing in Israel and lost support from the right because of his concessions to the Palestinians in Hebron and elsewhere, and due to his negotiations with Arafat generally. Netanyahu lost favor with the Israeli public after a long chain of scandals involving his marriage and corruption charges. In 1997, police recommended that Netanyahu be indicted on corruption charges for influence-peddling. He was accused of appointing an attorney general who would reduce the charges but prosecutors ruled that there was insufficient evidence to go to trial.[60] In 1999, Netanyahu faced another scandal when the Israel Police recommended that he be tried for corruption for $100,000 in free services from a government contractor; Israel's attorney general did not prosecute, citing difficulties with evidence.[61]
Election defeat
After being defeated by Ehud Barak in the 1999 election for Prime Minister, Netanyahu temporarily retired from politics.[62] He subsequently served as a senior consultant with Israeli communications equipment manufacturer BATM Advanced Communications for two years.[63][64]
With the fall of the Barak government in late 2000, Netanyahu expressed his desire to return to politics. By law, Barak's resignation was supposed to lead to elections for the prime minister position only. Netanyahu insisted that general elections should be held, claiming that otherwise it would be impossible to have a stable government. Netanyahu decided eventually not to run for the prime minister position, a move which facilitated 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 Foreign Minister.[41] Netanyahu challenged Sharon for the leadership of the Likud party, but failed to oust Sharon.[65]
On 9 September 2002, a scheduled speech by Netanyahu at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada was canceled after hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters overwhelmed security and smashed through a glass window. Netanyahu was not present at the protest, having remained at Montreal's Ritz-Carlton Hotel throughout the duration. He later accused the activists of supporting terrorism and "mad zealotry".[66] Weeks later on 1 October 2002 around 200 protesters met Netanyahu outside his Heinz Hall appearance in Pittsburgh although Pittsburgh Police, Israeli security and a Pittsburgh SWAT unit allowed his speeches to continue downtown at the hall and the Duquesne Club as well as suburban Robert Morris University.[67]
On 12 September 2002, Netanyahu testified (under oath as a private citizen) before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding the nuclear threat posed by the Iraqi régime: "There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking and is working and is advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons – no question whatsoever," he said. "And there is no question that once he acquires it, history shifts immediately."[68] In his testimony, Netanyahu also said, "If you take out Saddam, Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region."[69]
Minister of Finance
After the 2003 Israeli legislative election, in what many observers regarded as a surprise move, Sharon offered the Foreign Ministry to Silvan Shalom and offered Netanyahu the Finance Ministry. Some pundits speculated that Sharon made the move because he deemed Netanyahu a political threat given his demonstrated effectiveness as Foreign Minister, and that by placing him in the Finance Ministry during a time of economic uncertainty, he could diminish Netanyahu's popularity. Netanyahu accepted the new appointment. Sharon and Netanyahu came to an agreement that Netanyahu would have complete freedom as Finance Minister and have Sharon back all of his reforms, in exchange for Netanyahu's silence over Sharon's management of Israel's military and foreign affairs.[70]
As Finance Minister, Netanyahu undertook an economic plan in order to restore Israel's economy from its low point during the Second Intifada. Netanyahu claimed that a bloated public sector and excessive regulations were largely responsible for stifling economic growth. His plan involved a move toward more liberalized markets, although it was not without its critics. He instituted a program to end welfare dependency by requiring people to apply for jobs or training, reduced the size of the public sector, froze government spending for three years, and capped the budget deficit at 1%. The taxation system was streamlined and taxes were cut, with the top individual tax rate reduced from 64% to 44% and the corporate tax rate from 36% to 18%. A host of state assets worth billions of dollars were privatized, including banks, oil refineries, the El Al national airline, and Zim Integrated Shipping Services. The retirement ages for both men and women were raised, and currency exchange laws were further liberalized. Commercial banks were forced to spin off their long-term savings. In addition, Netanyahu attacked monopolies and cartels to increase competition. As the Israeli economy started booming and unemployment fell significantly, Netanyahu was widely credited by commentators as having performed an 'economic miracle' by the end of his tenure.[70][71][72]
However, opponents in the Labor party (and even a few within his own Likud) viewed Netanyahu's policies as "Thatcherite" attacks on the venerated Israeli social safety net.[73] Ultimately, unemployment declined while economic growth soared, the debt-to-GDP ratio dropped to one of the lowest in the world, and foreign investment reached record highs.[70]
Netanyahu threatened to resign from office in 2004 unless the Gaza pullout plan was put to a referendum. He later modified the ultimatum and voted for the program in the Knesset, indicating immediately thereafter that he would resign unless a referendum was held within 14 days.[74] He submitted his resignation letter on 7 August 2005, shortly before the Israeli cabinet voted 17 to 5 to approve the initial phase of withdrawal from Gaza.[75]
Return to leadership of Likud
Following the withdrawal of Sharon from the Likud, Netanyahu was one of several candidates who vied for the Likud leadership. His most recent attempt prior to this was in September 2005 when he had tried to hold early primaries for the position of the head of the Likud party, while the party held the office of Prime Minister – thus effectively pushing Ariel Sharon out of office. The party rejected this initiative. Netanyahu retook the leadership on 20 December 2005, with 47% of the primary vote, to 32% for Silvan Shalom and 15% for Moshe Feiglin.[12] In the March 2006 Knesset elections, Likud took the third place behind Kadima and Labor and Netanyahu served as Leader of the Opposition.[76] On 14 August 2007, Netanyahu was reelected as chairman of the Likud and its candidate for the post of Prime Minister with 73% of the vote, against far-right candidate Moshe Feiglin and World Likud chairman Danny Danon.[77] He opposed the 2008 Israel–Hamas ceasefire, like others in the Knesset opposition. Specifically, Netanyahu said, "This is not a relaxation, it's an Israeli agreement to the rearming of Hamas ... What are we getting for this?"[78]
In the first half of 2008, doctors removed a small colon polyp that proved to be benign.[79]
Following Tzipi Livni's election to head Kadima and Olmert's resignation from the post of Prime Minister, Netanyahu declined to join the coalition Livni was trying to form and supported new elections, which were held in February 2009.[80][81] Netanyahu was the Likud's candidate for Prime Minister in the 2009 Israeli legislative election which took place on 10 February 2009, as Livni, the previous Designated Acting Prime Minister under the Olmert government, had been unable to form a viable governing coalition. Opinion polls showed Likud in the lead, but with as many as a third of Israeli voters undecided.[82]
In the election itself, Likud won the second highest number of seats, Livni's party having outnumbered the Likud by one seat. A possible explanation for Likud's relatively poor showing is that some Likud supporters defected to Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party. Netanyahu, however, claimed victory on the basis that right-wing parties won the majority of the vote, and on 20 February 2009, Netanyahu was designated by Israeli President Shimon Peres to succeed Ehud Olmert as prime minister, and began his negotiations to form a coalition government.
Despite right wing parties winning a majority of 65 seats in the Knesset, Netanyahu preferred a broader centrist coalition and turned to his Kadima rivals, chaired by Tzipi Livni, to join his government. This time it was Livni's turn to decline to join, with a difference of opinion on how to pursue the peace process being the stumbling block. Netanyahu did manage to entice a smaller rival, the Labour party, chaired by Ehud Barak, to join his government, giving him a certain amount of centrist tone. Netanyahu presented his cabinet for a Knesset "Vote of Confidence" on 31 March 2009. The 32nd Government was approved that day by a majority of 69 lawmakers to 45 (with five abstaining) and the members were sworn in.[14][15]
Second term as Prime Minister
In 2009, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced support for the establishment of a Palestinian state – a solution not endorsed by prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu,[83] with whom she had earlier pledged the United States' cooperation.[84] Upon the arrival of President Obama administration's special envoy, George Mitchell, Netanyahu said that any furtherance of negotiations with the Palestinians would be conditioned on the Palestinians recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.[85]
During President Obama's Cairo speech on 4 June 2009 in which Obama addressed the Muslim world, Obama stated, among other things, "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements." Following Obama's Cairo speech Netanyahu immediately called a special government meeting. On 14 June, ten days after Obama's Cairo speech, Netanyahu gave a speech at Bar-Ilan University in which he endorsed a "Demilitarized Palestinian State", though said that Jerusalem must remain the unified capital of Israel.[86] Netanyahu stated that he would accept a Palestinian state if Jerusalem were to remain the united capital of Israel, the Palestinians would have no army, and the Palestinians would give up their demand for a right of return. He also argued the right for a "natural growth" in the existing Jewish settlements in the West Bank while their permanent status is up to further negotiation. Senior Palestinian official, Sereb Ereket, said that the speech had "closed the door to permanent status negotiations" due to Netanyahu's declarations on Jerusalem, refugees and settlements.[87]
Three months after starting his term, Netanyahu remarked that his cabinet already had achieved several notable successes, such as the establishment of a working national unity government, and a broad consensus for a "two-state solution".[88] A July 2009 survey by Ha'aretz found that most Israelis supported the Netanyahu government, giving him a personal approval rating of about 49 percent.[89] Netanyahu has lifted checkpoints in the West Bank in order to allow freedom of movement and a flow of imports; a step that resulted in an economic boost in the West Bank.[90][91][92] In 2009, Netanyahu welcomed the Arab Peace initiative (also known as the "Saudi Peace Initiative") and lauded a call by Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to normalize relations with Israel.[93][94]
In August 2009, Abbas declared that he would be willing to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly, where Netanyahu had accepted president Obama's invitation for a "triple summit", although he said it would not necessarily lead to negotiations.[95] Netanyahu was reported to be in a pivotal moment over these understandings, that were reported to include a compromise over permission on continuing the already approved construction in the West Bank in exchange for freezing all settlements thereafter, as well as continuing building in East Jerusalem, and at the same time stopping the demolition of houses of Arab inhabitants there.[96] On 4 September 2009, it was reported that Netanyahu was to agree to settlers' political demands to approve more settlement constructions before a temporary settlement freeze agreement took place.[97] White House spokesman Robert Gibbs expressed "regret" over the move;[98] however, one U.S. official said the move will not "derail [the] train".[99]
On 7 September 2009, Netanyahu left his office without reporting where he was headed. The prime minister's military secretary, Maj. Gen. Meir Kalifi, later reported Netanyahu had visited a security facility in Israel.[100] Several different news agencies reported several different stories about where he was.[101] On 9 September 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.[100][102][103] Headlines branded Netanyahu a "liar" and dubbed the affair a "fiasco".[104][105] It was later reported that the PM's military secretary would be dismissed due to the affair.[106] The Sunday Times reported that the trip was made to share the names of Russian scientists that Israel believes are abetting the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons program.[107]
On 24 September 2009, in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Netanyahu said Iran poses a threat to the peace of the world and that it is incumbent on the world body to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons.[108][109] Waving the blueprints for Auschwitz and invoking the memory of his own family members murdered by the Nazis, Netanyahu delivered a passionate and public riposte to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's questioning of the Holocaust, asking: "Have you no shame?"[110]
In response to pressure from the Obama administration urging the sides to resume peace talks, on 25 November 2009 Netanyahu announced a partial 10-month settlement construction freeze plan. The announced partial freeze had no significant effect on actual settlement construction, according to an analysis by the major Israeli daily Haaretz.[111] U.S. special envoy George Mitchell said, "while the United States shares Arab concerns about the limitations of Israel's gesture, it is more than any Israeli government has ever done".[112] In his announcement Netanyahu called the move "a painful step that will encourage the peace process" and urged the Palestinians to respond.[113] The Palestinians rejected the call, stating the gesture was "insignificant" in that thousands of recently approved settlement buildings in the West Bank would continue to be built and there would be no freeze of settlement activity in East Jerusalem.[114]
In March 2010, Israel's government approved construction of an additional 1,600 apartments in a large Jewish housing development in northern East Jerusalem called Ramat Shlomo[115] despite the position of the current U.S. Government that acts such as this thwart the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The Israeli government's announcement occurred during a visit by U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden and the U.S. government subsequently issued a strongly worded condemnation of the plan.[116] Netanyahu subsequently issued a statement that all previous Israeli governments had continuously permitted 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 agreement plan that has been proposed by either side to date.[115] Netanyahu regretted the timing of the announcement but asserted that "our policy on Jerusalem is the same policy followed by all Israeli governments for the 42 years, and it has not changed."[117]
In September 2010, Netanyahu agreed to enter direct talks, mediated by the Obama administration, with the Palestinians for the first time in a long while.[118] The ultimate aim of these direct talks is to forge the framework of an official "final status settlement" to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict by forming a two-state solution for the Jewish people and the Palestinian people. On 27 September, the 10-month settlement freeze ended, and the Israeli government approved new construction in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.[119] On retiring from office in July 2011, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had said that Netanyahu was ungrateful to the United States and endangering Israel. Responding, the Likud party defended Netanyahu by saying that most Israelis supported the Prime Minister and that he had broad support in the United States.[120][121]
Netanyahu unsuccessfully called for the early release of Jonathan Pollard, an American serving a life sentence for passing secret U.S. documents to Israel in 1987.[122] He has raised the issue at the Wye River Summit in 1998, where he claimed that U.S. President Bill Clinton had privately agreed to release Pollard.[123][124] In 2002, Netanyahu visited Pollard at his North Carolina prison.[125][126] The Israeli Prime Minister maintained contact with Pollard's wife, and was active in pressing the Obama administration to release Pollard.[127][128]
In 2011, social justice protests broke out across Israel. Hundreds of thousands of people protested Israel's high cost of living throughout the country. In response, Netanyahu appointed the Trajtenberg Committee, headed by professor Manuel Trajtenberg, to examine the problems and propose solutions. The committee submitted recommendations to lower the high cost of living in September 2011.[129] Although Netanyahu promised to push the proposed reforms through the cabinet in one piece, differences inside his coalition resulted in the reforms being gradually adopted.[130][131]
Netanyahu's cabinet also approved a plan to build a fiber-optic cable network across the country to bring cheap, high-speed fiber-optic Internet access to every home.[132][133]
In 2012, Netanyahu initially planned to call early elections, but subsequently oversaw the creation of a controversial government of national unity to see Israel through until the national elections of 2013.[134] In May 2012, Netanyahu officially recognized for the first time the right for Palestinians to have their own state in an official document, a letter to Mahmoud Abbas, though as before[86] he declared it would have to be demilitarized.[135] On 25 October 2012, Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced that their respective political parties, Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu, had merged and would run together on a single ballot in Israel's 22 January 2013 general elections.[136]
Third term as Prime Minister
The 2013 election returned Netanyahu's Likud Beiteinu coalition with 11 fewer seats than the combined Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu parties had going into the vote. Nevertheless, as leader of what remained the largest faction in the Knesset, Israeli president Shimon Peres charged Netanyahu with the task of forming the Thirty-third government of Israel. The new coalition included the Yesh Atid, The Jewish Home and Hatnuah parties and excludes the ultra-Orthodox parties at the insistence of Yesh Atid and the Jewish Home.
During Netanyahu's third term, he continued his policy of economic liberalization. In December 2013, the Knesset approved the Business Concentration Law, which intended to open Israel's highly concentrated economy to competition to lower consumer prices, reduce income inequality, and increase economic growth. Netanyahu had formed the Concentration Committee in 2010, and the bill, which was pushed forward by his government, implemented its recommendations. The new law banned multi-tiered corporate holding structures, in which a CEO's family members or other affiliated individuals held public companies which in turn owned other public companies, and who were thus able to engage in price gouging. Under the law, corporations were banned from owning more than two tiers of publicly listed companies and from holding both financial and non-financial enterprises. All conglomerates were given four to six years to sell excess holdings.[137][138] Netanyahu also began a campaign of port privatization to break what he viewed as the monopoly held by workers of the Israel Port Authority, so as to lower consumer prices and increase exports. In July 2013, he issued tenders for the construction of private ports in Haifa and Ashdod.[139] Netanyahu has also pledged to curb excess bureaucracy and regulations to ease the burden on industry.[140]
In April 2014, and again in June, Netanyahu spoke of his deep concerns when Hamas and the Palestinian Authority agreed and then formed a unity government, and was severely critical of both the United States and European governments' decision to work with the Palestinian coalition government.[141] He blamed Hamas for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June 2014,[142] and launched a massive search and arrest operation on the West Bank, targeting members of Hamas in particular, and over the following weeks hit 60 targets in Gaza.[143] Missile and rocket exchanges between Gaza militants and the IDF escalated after the bodies of the teenagers, who had been killed almost immediately as the government had good reasons to suspect, were discovered on 30 June 2014.[144] After several Hamas operatives were killed, either in an explosion or from an Israeli bombing, Hamas officially declared it would launch rockets from Gaza into Israel,[143][145] and Israel started Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip, formally ending the November 2012 ceasefire agreement.[146] The prime minister did a round of television shows in the United States and described Hamas as "genocidal terrorists" in an interview on CNN.[147] When asked if Gazan casualties from the operation might spark "a third intifada", Netanyahu replied that Hamas was working towards that goal.[148]
In October 2014, Netanyahu's government approved a privatization plan to reduce corruption and politicization in government companies, and strengthen Israel's capital market. Under the plan, minority stakes of up to 49% in state-owned companies, including arms manufacturers, energy, postal, water, and railway companies, as well as the ports of Haifa and Ashdod.[149] That same month, Netanyahu called restrictions on settlements "against the American values",[150] a remark that earned him a sharp rebuke from the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, who noted that American values had resulted in Israel receiving not only consistent funding but protective technology such as Iron Dome.[151] Not long thereafter, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic reported that the relationship between Netanyahu and the White House had reached a new low, with the U.S. administration angry over Israel's settlement policies, and Netanyahu expressing contempt for the American administration's grasp of the Middle East.[152] Netanyahu explained that he does not accept restrictions on where Jews could live, and said that Jerusalem's Arabs and Jews should be able to buy homes wherever they want. He said he was "baffled" by the American condemnation. "It's against the American values. And it doesn't bode well for peace. The idea that we'd have this ethnic purification as a condition for peace, I think it's anti-peace."[150]
On 2 December 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 Hatnua. The changes led to the dissolution of the government, with new elections expected on 17 March 2015.[153]
In January 2015, Netanyahu was invited to address the US Congress. This speech marked Netanyahu's third speech to a joint session of Congress.[154] The day before announcing he would address Congress, Time reported that he tried to derail a meeting between U.S. lawmakers and the head of Mossad, Tamir Pardo, who intended warning them against imposing further sanctions against Iran, a move that might derail nuclear talks.[155][156] Leading up to the speech, on 3 March 2015, Israeli consuls general in the United States "expect[ed] fierce negative reaction from U.S. Jewish communities and Israel's allies". Objections included the arrangement of the speech without the support and engagement of the Obama administration and the timing of the speech before Israel's 17 March 2015 election. Seven American Jewish lawmakers met with Ron Dermer, Israel's ambassador to the U.S. and recommended that Netanyahu instead meet with lawmakers privately to discuss Iran.[157] In making the speech, Netanyahu claimed to speak for all Jews worldwide, a claim disputed by others in the Jewish community.[158][159][160][161] Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, stated that "American Jews are largely appalled by the notion that Netanyahu, or any other Israeli politician – one that we did not elect and do not choose to be represented by – claims to speak for us."[162]
As election day approached in what was perceived to be a close race in the 2015 Israeli elections, Netanyahu answered 'indeed' when asked whether a Palestinian state would not be established in his term. He said that support of a Palestinian state is tantamount to yielding territory for radical Islamic terrorists to attack Israel.[163] However, Netanyahu reiterated "I don't want a one-state solution. I want a peaceful, sustainable two-state solution. I have not changed my policy."[164]
Fourth term as Prime Minister
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
In the 2015 election, Netanyahu returned with his party Likud leading the elections with 30 mandates, making it the single highest number of seats for the Knesset. President Rivlin granted Netanyahu an extension until 6 May 2015 to build a coalition when one had not been finalized in the first four weeks of negotiations.[165] He formed a coalition government within two hours of the midnight 6 May deadline.[166] His Likud party formed the coalition with Jewish Home, United Torah Judaism, Kulanu, and Shas.[166][167]
On 28 May 2015, Netanyahu announced that he would be running for an unprecedented fifth term as Prime Minister in the next general election and that he supports Likud's current process of picking MK candidates.[168]
In August 2015, Netanyahu's government approved a two-year budget that would see agricultural reforms and lowering of import duties to reduce food prices, deregulation of the approval process in construction to lower housing costs and speed up infrastructure building, and reforms in the financial sector to boost competition and lower fees for financial services.[169][170] In the end, the government was forced to compromise by removing some key agricultural reforms.[171]
In October 2015, Netanyahu drew widespread criticism for claiming that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, gave Adolf Hitler the idea for the Holocaust in the preceding months to the Second World War, convincing the Nazi leader to exterminate Jews rather than just expel them from Europe.[172][173] This idea is dismissed by mainstream historians,[174] who note that al-Husseini's meeting with Hitler took place approximately five months after the mass murder of Jews began.[175] German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she did not accept Netanyahu's claims, and reiterated an acceptance of her country's crimes during the Nazi era.[176] Netanyahu later explained that his "aim was not to absolve Hitler from the responsibility he bears, but to show that the father of the Palestinian nation at the time, without a state and before the 'occupation,' without the territories and with the settlements, even then aspired with systemic incitement for the destruction of the Jews."[177] Some of the strongest criticism came from Israeli academics: Yehuda Bauer said Netanyahu's claim was "completely idiotic",[175] while Moshe Zimmermann stated that "any attempt to deflect the burden from Hitler to others is a form of Holocaust denial."[178]
In March 2016, Netanyahu's coalition faced a potential crisis as ultra-Orthodox members threatened to withdraw over the government's proposed steps to create non-Orthodox prayer space at the Western Wall. They have stated they will leave the coalition if the government offers any further official state recognition of Conservative and Reform Judaism.[179]
On 23 December 2016, the United States, under the Obama Administration, abstained from United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, effectively allowing it to pass.[180] On 28 December, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry strongly criticized Israel and its settlement policies in a speech.[181] Netanyahu strongly criticized both the UN Resolution[182] and Kerry's speech[183] in response. On 6 January 2017, the Israeli government withdrew its annual dues from the organization, which totaled $6 million in United States dollars.[184]
On 22 February 2017, Netanyahu became the first serving Prime Minister of Israel to visit Australia. He was accompanied by his wife, Sara. The three-day official visit included a delegation of business representatives, and Netanyahu and Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull were scheduled to sign several bilateral agreements. Netanyahu recalled that it was the Australian Light Horse regiments that liberated Beersheba during World War 1, and this began what has been a relationship of 100 years between the countries.[185]
On 12 October 2017, shortly after the United States announced the same action, Netanyahu's government announced it was leaving UNESCO due to what it saw as anti-Israel actions by the agency,[186][187] and it made that decision official in December 2017.[188][189] The Israeli government officially notified UNESCO of the withdrawal in late December 2017.[190][191][192][193]
On 30 April 2018, Netanyahu accused Iran of not holding up its end of the Iran nuclear deal after presenting a cache of over 100,000 documents detailing the extent of Iran's nuclear program. Iran denounced Netanyahu's presentation as "propaganda".[194]
Netanyahu praised the 2018 North Korea–United States summit. He said in a statement, "I commend US President Donald Trump on the historic summit in Singapore. This is an important step in the effort to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons."[195]
On 19 July 2018, the Knesset passed the Nation-State Bill, a Basic Law supported by Netanyahu's coalition government.[196][197][198] Analysts saw the bill as a sign of Netanyahu's coalition advancing a right-wing agenda.[199]
Prior to the April 2019 Israeli legislative election, Netanyahu helped broker a deal that united the Jewish Home party[200] with the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, in order to form the Union of the Right-Wing Parties. The motivation of the deal was to overcome the electoral threshold for smaller parties. The deal was criticized in the media, as Otzma is widely characterized as racist and traces its origins to the extremist Kahanist movement.[201][202]
On 10 September 2019, Netanyahu pledged to annex part of the occupied West Bank on the border with Jordan if re-elected the following week. He vowed to apply "Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea".[203]
Criminal investigations and indictment
Since January 2017, Netanyahu has been investigated and questioned by Israeli police in two cases, "Case 1000" and "Case 2000". The two cases are connected. In Case 1000, Netanyahu is suspected of having obtained inappropriate favors from businessmen, including James Packer and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan.[204][205] Case 2000 involves alleged attempts to strike a deal with the publisher of the Yedioth Ahronot newspaper group, Arnon Mozes, to promote legislation to weaken Yedioth's main competitor, Israel Hayom, in exchange for more favorable coverage of Netanyahu.
On 3 August 2017, Israeli police confirmed for the first time that Netanyahu was suspected of crimes involving fraud, breach of trust, and bribes in cases "1000" and "2000".[206] The next day, it was reported that the Prime Minister's former chief of staff, Ari Harow, had signed a deal with prosecutors to testify against Netanyahu in these cases.[207]
On 13 February 2018, Israeli police recommended that Netanyahu be charged with corruption. According to a police statement, sufficient evidence exists to indict the prime minister on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in the two cases. Netanyahu responded that the allegations were baseless and that he would continue as prime minister.[208] On 25 November 2018, it was reported that Economic Crimes Division Director Liat Ben-Ari recommended indictment for both cases.[209]
On 28 February 2019, the Israeli attorney general announced his intent to file indictments against Netanyahu on bribe and fraud charges in three different cases.[19] Netanyahu was formally indicted on 21 November 2019.[210][211][212] If Netanyahu is convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison for bribery and a maximum of three years for fraud and breach of trust.[213][214] He is the first sitting prime minister in Israel's history to be charged with a crime.[20] On 23 November 2019, it was announced that Netanyahu, in compliance with legal precedent set by the Israeli Supreme Court in 1993,[21] would relinquish his agriculture, health, social affairs and diaspora affairs portfolios.[21][22] The matter of forcing a prime minister to resign due to an indictment has yet to be tested in court.[21][22] He was officially charged on 28 January 2020.[215]
Netanyahu's criminal trial is set to begin on 24 May 2020, having been initially scheduled for March of that year but delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.[216]
Fifth term as Prime Minister
On 17 May 2020, Netanyahu was sworn-in for a fifth term as prime minister in a coalition with Benny Gantz. This occurred after the 2019–20 Israeli political crisis.
Political positions
Economic views
Benjamin Netanyahu, The Marker, 2014[217]
Netanyahu has been described as "the advocate of the free-market".[218] As Prime Minister in his first term, he significantly reformed the banking sector, removing barriers to investment abroad, mandatory purchases of government securities and direct credit. As Minister of Finance (2003–2005), Netanyahu introduced a major overhaul of the Israeli economy. He introduced a welfare to work program, he led a program of privatization, reduced the size of the public sector, reformed and streamlined the taxation system and passed laws against monopolies and cartels with the aim of increasing competition.[71] Netanyahu extended capital gains taxes from companies to individuals, which allowed him to enlarge the tax base while reducing taxes on incomes.[219] As the Israeli economy started booming and unemployment fell significantly, Netanyahu was widely credited by commentators as having performed an 'economic miracle' by the end of his tenure.[71] Direct investment in the Israeli economy had increased by an annualized 380%.[220] On the other hand, his critics have labelled his economic views as Margaret Thatcher-inspired "popular capitalism".[221]
Netanyahu defines capitalism as "the ability to have individual initiative and competition to produce goods and services with profit, but not to shut out somebody else from trying to do the same".[217] He says that his views developed while he was working as an economic consult for Boston Consulting Group: "It was the first time that the Boston Consulting Group looked at governments and worked for governments. They wanted to do a strategic plan for the government of Sweden. I was on that case and looked at other governments. So I went around to other governments in Europe in 1976 and I was looking at Britain. I was looking at France. I was looking at other countries, and I could see that they were stymied 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 or union-controlled companies, and so you really didn't get the competition or the growth ... And I said, well, if I ever have a chance, I'll change that."[217]
Views on counter-terrorism
Benjamin Netanyahu, 1995[222]
Netanyahu has said his own "hard line against all terrorists" came as a result of his brother's death. Yoni Netanyahu had been killed while leading the hostage-rescue mission at Operation Entebbe.[223]
In addition to having taken part in counter-terrorist operations during his service in the military, Netanyahu has published three books on the subject of fighting terrorism. He identifies terrorism as a form of totalitarianism, writing: "The more far removed the target of the attack from any connection to the grievance enunciated by the terrorists, the greater the terror ... Yet for terrorism to have any impact, it is precisely the lack of connection, the lack of any possible involvement or "complicity" of the chosen victims in the cause the terrorists seek to attack, that produces the desired fear. For terrorism's underlying message is that every member of society is "guilty", that anyone can be a victim, and that therefore no one is safe ... In fact, the methods reveal the totalitarian strain that runs through all terrorist groups ... It is not only that the ends of the terrorists do not succeed in justifying the means they choose; their choice of means indicate what their true ends are. Far from being fighters for freedom, terrorists are the forerunners of tyranny. Terrorists use the techniques of violent coercion in order to achieve a regime of violent coercion."[224]
Netanyahu cautions that "[t]he trouble with active anti-terror activities ... is that they do constitute a substantial intrusion on 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 should be shift towards security, due to "the monstrous violation of personal rights which is the lot of the victims of terror and their families".[225] But this should be regularly reviewed, with an emphasis on guarding civil liberties and individual privacy wherever and whenever security considerations allow:[225] "The concern of civil libertarians over possible infringements of the rights of innocent citizens is well placed, and all additional powers granted the security services should require annual renewal by the legislature, this in addition to judicial oversight of actions as they are taken in the field."[226]
He advises tighter immigration laws as an essential tool to preemptively combat terrorism: "This era of immigration free-for-all should be brought to an end. An important aspect of taking control of the immigration situation is stricter background checks of potential immigrants, coupled with the real possibility of deportation."[226]
He also cautions that it is essential that governments do not conflate terrorists with those legitimate political groups that may or may not hold extremist views, but which advance their positions by means of debate and argument: "Democracies have their share of anti-immigrant or anti-establishment parties, as well as advocates of extreme nationalism or internationalism ... [T]hey are often genuinely convinced participants in democracy, accepting its basic ground rules and defending its central tenets. These can and must be distinguished from the tiny splinters at the absolute fringes of democratic society, which may endorse many similar ideas, but use them as a pretext to step outside the rubric of the democratic system".[222]
In particular, Ronald Reagan was an admirer of Netanyahu's work on counter-terrorism, and Reagan recommended Netanyahu's book Terrorism: How the West Can Win to all senior figures in his administration.[227]
Death penalty
In 2017 Netanyahu called for the death penalty to be imposed on the perpetrator of the 2017 Halamish stabbing attack.[228] Representatives in his government introduced a bill which would allow the death penalty for terrorism to the Knesset.[229][230] In January 2018, 52 of 120 members of the Israeli parliament voted in favor while 49 opposed, making it easier for judges to hand down the death penalty.[231]
LGBT rights
Netanyahu supports equal rights before the law for LGBT citizens, stating: "The struggle for every person 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 among the most open countries in the world in relation to the LGBT community discourse."[232][233] During an event held for the annual community rights day at the Knesset, Netanyahu proclaimed that he was "asked to come here in the middle of my busy schedule to say one thing to the male and female members of the LGBT community: We must be guided by the conviction that every person is created in the image of God."[234] However, in his coalition government, many of his coalition government party members opposed same-sex marriage.
Ethiopian Jewish integration
_-_A_memorial_service_of_Ethiopian_immigrants.jpg)
In 2015, after Ethiopian Jewish protests against police brutality, Netanyahu said: "We will bring a comprehensive plan to the government to assist you in every way. There is no room for racism and discrimination in our society, none ... We will turn racism into something contemptible and despicable."[235]
African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem
Netanyahu supports the integration of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem into Israeli society, and takes part in celebrations in honor of this community's "exodus" from America to Israel, which occurred in 1967. In 2012, Netanyahu expressed appreciation towards "the cooperative society that is working towards the inclusion of the Hebrew Israelite community in Israeli society at large," and declared that the experience of the community in the land of Israel is "an integral part of the Israeli experience."[236]
Peace process
Netanyahu opposed the Oslo accords from their inception. In 1993, he dedicated a chapter, entitled "Trojan Horse", of his book A Place Among the Nations to argue against the Oslo Peace Process. He asserted that Amin al-Husseini had been one of the masterminds of the Holocaust, and that Yasser Arafat was heir to the former's "alleged exterminationist Nazism".[237] During his term as prime minister in the late 1990s, Netanyahu consistently reneged on commitments made by previous Israeli governments as part of the Oslo peace process, leading American peace envoy Dennis Ross to note that "neither President Clinton nor Secretary [of State Madeleine] Albright believed that Bibi had any real interest in pursuing peace."[238] In a 2001 video, Netanyahu, reportedly unaware he was being recorded, said: "They asked me before the election if I'd honor [the Oslo Accords]", "I said I would, but ... I'm going to interpret the accords in such a way that would allow me to put an end to this galloping forward to the '67 borders. How did we do it? Nobody said what defined military zones were. Defined military zones are security zones; as far as I'm concerned, the entire Jordan Valley is a defined military zone. Go argue."[239]
On 9 August 2009, speaking at the opening of his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu promised not to repeat the "mistake" of the Gaza unilateral pullout, saying, "We will not repeat this mistake. We will not create new evacuees", and adding that "the unilateral evacuation brought neither peace nor security. On the contrary", 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 settlement. In the case of Gaza, both of these factors were lacking". He also said, "Should we achieve a turn toward peace with the more moderate partners, we will insist on the recognition of the State of Israel and the demilitarization of the future Palestinian state".[240][241] In October 2014, Netanyahu said "We don't just hand over territory, close our eyes and hope for the best. We did that in Lebanon and we got thousands of rockets. We did that in Gaza, we got Hamas and 15,000 rockets. So we're not gonna just replicate that. We want to see genuine recognition of the Jewish state and rock solid security arrangements on the ground. That's the position I've held, and it's only become firmer."[242]
Netanyahu had previously called U.S.-backed peace talks a waste of time,[243] while at the same time refusing to commit to the same two-state solution as had other Israeli leaders,[244] until a speech in June 2009. He repeatedly made public statements which advocated an "economic peace" approach, meaning an approach based on economic cooperation and joint effort rather than continuous contention over political and diplomatic issues. This is in line with many significant ideas from the Peace Valley plan.[245] He raised these ideas during discussions with former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.[246] Netanyahu continued to advocate these ideas as the Israeli elections approached.[247] Netanyahu has said:
Right now, the peace talks are based on only one thing, only on peace talks. It makes no sense at this point to talk about the most contractible issue. It's Jerusalem or bust, or right of return or bust. That has led to failure and is likely to lead to failure again ... We must weave an economic peace alongside a political process. That means that we have to strengthen the moderate parts of the Palestinian economy by handing rapid growth in those areas, rapid economic growth that gives a stake for peace for the ordinary Palestinians."[245]
In January 2009, prior to 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 Olmert by expanding settlements in the West Bank, in contravention of the Road Map, but not building new ones.[248]
In 2013, Netanyahu denied reports that his government would agree to peace talks on the basis of the green line.[249] In 2014 he agreed to the American framework based on the green line and said that Jewish settlers must be allowed the option of staying in their settlements under Palestinian rule.[250][251]
In 2014, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat criticized Netanyahu, calling him "ideologically corrupt" and a war criminal.[252]
In January 2020, Netanyahu publicly supported Trump's Israeli-Palestinian peace plan for the creation of the State of Palestine.[253]
Bar-Ilan speech
On 14 June 2009, Netanyahu delivered a seminal address[254] at Bar-Ilan University (also known as the "Bar-Ilan speech"), at Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, that was broadcast live in Israel and across parts of the Arab world, on the topic of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. He endorsed for the first time the notion of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.[255] Netanyahu's speech could be viewed in part as a response to Obama's 4 June speech at Cairo. Yedioth Ahronoth claimed that Obama's words had "resonated through Jerusalem's corridors".[256]
As part of his proposal, Netanyahu demanded the full demilitarization of the proposed state, with no army, rockets, missiles, or control of its airspace, and said that Jerusalem would be undivided Israeli territory. He stated that the Palestinians should recognize Israel as the Jewish national state with an undivided Jerusalem. He rejected a right of return for Palestinian refugees, saying, "any demand for resettling Palestinian refugees within Israel undermines Israel's continued existence as the state of the Jewish people." He also stated that a complete stop to settlement building in the West Bank, as required by the 2003 Road Map peace proposal, was not possible and the expansions will be limited based on the "natural growth" of the population, including immigration, with no new territories taken in. Nevertheless, Netanyahu affirmed that he accepted the Road Map proposal.[257] He did not discuss whether or not the settlements should be part of Israel after peace negotiations, simply stating that the "question will be discussed".[255]
In a response to U.S. President Barack Obama's statements in his Cairo speech, Netanyahu remarked, "there are those who say that if the Holocaust had not occurred, the State of Israel would never have been established. But I say that if the State of Israel would have been established earlier, the Holocaust would not have occurred." He also said, "this is the homeland of the Jewish people, this is where our identity was forged." He stated that he would be willing to meet with any "Arab leader" for negotiations without preconditions, specifically mentioning Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon.[255] In general, the address represented a new position for Netanyahu's government on the peace process.[87]
Some right-wing members of Netanyahu's governing coalition criticized his remarks for the creation of a Palestinian State, believing that all of the land should come under Israeli sovereignty. Likud MK Danny Danon said that Netanyahu went "against the Likud platform",[258] while MK Uri Orbach of Habayit Hayehudi said that it had "dangerous implications".[259] Opposition party Kadima leader Tzipi Livni remarked after the address that she thinks Netanyahu does not really believe in the two-state solution at all; she thought that he only said what he did as a feigned response to international pressure.[260] Peace Now criticized the speech, highlighting that, in the group's opinion, it did not address the Palestinians as equal partners in the peace process. The Secretary General of Peace Now, Yariv Oppenheimer, said, "It's a rerun of Netanyahu from his first term".[261]
On 9 August 2009, speaking at the opening of a government meeting, Netanyahu repeated his claims from 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 of which is) a security settlement".[240]
Netanyahu's "Bar-Ilan speech" provoked mixed reaction from the international community.[262] The Palestinian National Authority rejected the conditions on a Palestinian State given by Netanyahu. Senior official Saeb Erekat said, "Netanyahu's speech closed the door to permanent status negotiations". Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said it reflected a "racist and extremist ideology"[263] and called on Arab nations to "form stronger opposition".[87] Palestinian Islamic Jihad labeled it "misleading" and, like Hamas, demanded stronger opposition to Israel from Arab nations.[264] According to The Jerusalem Post, some leaders advocated a third intifada in response to the speech.[255] The Arab League dismissed the address, declaring in a statement that "Arabs would not make concessions regarding issues of Jerusalem and refugees" and that "we know his history and style of evasion", adding that the Arab League would not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.[264] Referring to Netanyahu's demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak remarked, "You won't find anyone to answer that call in Egypt, or in any other place." Issuing a less blunt response, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that the speech was "not complete" and that it hoped for another, "different Israeli proposal which is built on the commitment to the two-state solution".[265][266] Syrian state media condemned the speech and wrote that "Netanyahu has confirmed that he rejects the Arab peace initiative for peace along with all the initiatives and resolutions of the Security Council to relative peace."[262][267] Lebanese President Michel Suleiman called for unity among Arab leaders, saying that "Arab leaders should be more united and preserve the spirit of resistance to face the Israeli stands regarding the peace process and the Palestinian refugee issue." He called on the international community to exert more pressure on the Israeli government to accept the Arab Peace Initiative, as he said "Israel still has a will of military confrontation which can be proved in its offensives on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip."[264] Jordanian Minister of State for Media affairs and Communications, and Government spokesperson Nabil Sharif issued a statement saying "The ideas presented by Netanyahu do not live up to what was agreed on by the international community as a starting point for achieving a just and comprehensive peace in the region."[264] Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad referred to the speech as "bad news".[262]
The Czech Republic praised Netanyahu's address. "In my view, this is a step in the right direction. The acceptance of a Palestinian state was present there," said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, whose country held the EU's six-month presidency at the time of the speech.[268] President Barack Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said that the speech was an "important step forward".[264][269] President Obama stated that "this solution can and must ensure both Israel's security and the Palestinians' legitimate aspirations for a viable state".[262] 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 he mentioned can be defined as a state is a subject of some debate".[262][268] France praised the speech but called on Israel to cease building settlements in the West Bank. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner stated, "I can only welcome the prospect of a Palestinian state outlined by the Israeli Prime Minister."[262][268] The Foreign Ministry of Russia called the speech "a sign of readiness for dialogue" but said that "it does not open up the road to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian problem. The conditions on the Palestinians would be unacceptable."[262]
Iran
In an 8 March 2007 interview with CNN, opposition leader Netanyahu claimed that "there is only one difference between Nazi Germany and the Islamic Republic of Iran, namely that the first entered a worldwide conflict and then sought atomic weapons, while the latter is first seeking atomic weapons and, once it has them, will then start a world war." Netanyahu repeated these remarks at a news conference in April 2008.[270] This was similar to earlier remarks that "it's 1938, and Iran is Germany, and Iran is racing to arm itself with atomic bombs".[271]
On 20 February 2009, after being asked to be the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu described Iran as the greatest threat that Israel has ever faced: "Iran is seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon and constitutes the gravest threat to our existence since the war of independence."[272] Speaking before the UN General Assembly in New York on 24 September 2009, Netanyahu expressed a different opinion than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the forum, saying those who believe Tehran is a threat only to Israel are wrong. "The Iranian regime", he said, "is motivated by fanaticism ... They want to see us go back to medieval times. The struggle against Iran pits civilization against barbarism. This Iranian regime is fueled by extreme fundamentalism."[108][109] "By focusing solely on Iran," columnist Yossi Melman speculated that Netanyahu's foreign policy, "... took the Palestinian issue off the world agenda." After four days of shelling from the Iranian-funded Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Melman asked, "Is it worth initiating a crisis with Iran? Will the Israeli public be able to cope with Iran's response?"[273] According to Uzi Eilam, a retired brigadier general and the ex-director of Israel's Atomic Energy Commission, Benjamin Netanyahu is using the threat of atomic Iran as a means of reaching his own goals. Directly blaming Netanyahu, he said: "Netanyahu is using the Iranian threat to achieve a variety of political objectives." He also said: "These declarations are unnecessarily scaring Israel's citizens, given Israel is not party to the negotiations to determine whether Iran will or will not dismantle its nuclear program."[274]
By 2012, Netanyahu is reported to have formed a close, confidential relationship with Defense Minister Ehud Barak as the two men considered possible Israeli military action against Iran's nuclear facilities,[275][276] following Israel's established Begin Doctrine. The pair were accused of acting on "messianic" impulses by Yuval Diskin, former head of the Shin Bet, who added that their warmongering rhetoric appealed to "the idiots within the Israeli public".[277] Diskin's remarks were supported by former Mossad chief Meir Dagan,[278] who himself had previously said that an attack on Iran was "the stupidest thing I have ever heard".[279] 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 doing so, and without naming names, RAND sided with former Mossad chief Meir Dagan and former head of the Shin Bet Yuval Diskin."[280]
Early in 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 struggled to raise the alarm about the Nazis' genocidal intentions.[281] Israeli academic Avner Cohen accused Netanyahu of showing "contempt" for the Holocaust by putting it to "political use",[282] and former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami similarly condemned Netanyahu's "vulgar manipulation of the memory of the Holocaust".[283] Immediately after the 2012 Burgas bus bombing, Netanyahu confirmed that the attack had been undertaken in coordination with Iran.[284]
Netanyahu stated during a 29 July meeting that, in his opinion, "all the sanctions and diplomacy so far have not set back the Iranian programme by one iota".[285] And in August he stated that the United States only might respond to a massive attack against Israel.[286] On 28 September 2012, Netanyahu gave a speech to the UN General Assembly in which he set forward a "red line" of 90% uranium enrichment, stating that if Iran were to reach this level, it would become an intolerable risk for Israel.[287] 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 "By next spring, at most by next summer at current enrichment rates, [Iran] will have finished the medium enrichment and move on to the final stage. From there, it's only a few months, possibly a few weeks before they get enough enriched uranium for the first bomb." Netanyahu delivered his speech the day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, a presentation that the American, Canadian, and Israeli delegations had deliberately not attended.[288] At the time, according to cables leaked in 2015, Mossad's assessment was that Iran did not appear ready to enrich uranium to levels required for a nuclear bomb.[289]
In an October 2013 interview with BBC Persian Service, Netanyahu praised the history of Persia and said: "If the Iranian regime has nuclear weapons, the Iranian people will never be free of dictatorship and will live in eternal servitude."[290]
The U.S. military's 2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike, which killed the high-level Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, brought strong reactions from around the world. Netanyahu praised the air strike, saying that Trump had acted "swiftly, forcefully and decisively".[291]
Bank of China terror financing case
In 2013, Netanyahu found himself caught between conflicting commitments made to the family of American terror victim Daniel Wultz and the Government of China. Although Netanyahu was reported to have previously promised U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen that Israel would fully cooperate in the terror-financing case against Bank of China in U.S. District Court, the prime minister reportedly made a conflicting promise to the Government of China prior to a state visit to China in May 2013.[292] Attorney David Boies, lead counsel for the Wultz family, told The Wall Street Journal, "While we are respectful of China's interests, and of the diplomatic pressure to which Israel has been subjected, those interests and that pressure cannot be permitted to obstruct the ability of American courts to hear critical evidence."[293][294]
In August 2013, Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the House Middle East and South Asia subcommittee, told the Miami Herald she raised the issue while leading a congressional delegation to Israel, stressing to Israeli officials the importance of them providing the Wultz family what they need for their lawsuit.[295] "I am hopeful that we can bring this case to a conclusion that is satisfactory to the family, but we need community support to not waver at this critical time," Ros-Lehtinen said.[295]
U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the Democratic National Committee, also spoke out 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 took Daniel Wultz's innocent life. I have been working, hand in hand with the Wultz family and the state of Israel to ensure any and all of those involved in this terrorist activity, including the Bank of China, pay for their crimes so that justice can be served."[295]
Defense and security
In 2011, Netanyahu arranged for 1000 Hamas and Fatah prisoners to be swapped for Gilad Shalit, including terrorists with "blood on their hands".[296] Israeli officials estimate that 60% of those who are released "resume terrorism attacks".[297]
In 2011, Israeli General Staff concluded that the armed forces cannot maintain their battle readiness under Netanyahu's proposed cuts.[298] However Netanyahu decided to cut social programs instead, and promised to increase the defense budget by about six percent.[299][300] In spite of this, the Israeli military still fell NIS 3.7 million short from its projected budget, which could damage their war capabilities.[301] According to a U.S. State Department representative in November 2011, under the leadership of Netanyahu and Obama, Israel and the United States have enjoyed unprecedented security cooperation.[302]
Under Netanyahu's leadership, the Israeli National Security Council has seen an expanded role in foreign policy planning and decision-making.[303]
Illegal immigration
In his 1995 book Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism, Netanyahu strongly argued that tightening immigration laws in the West is the most effective method to combat terrorism. "This era of immigration free-for-all should be brought to an end", he wrote in 1995.[226]
In 2012 the Netanyahu government passed the "Prevention of Infiltration Law", which mandated automatic detention of all people, including asylum-seekers, who enter Israel without permission. Amnesty International called it "an affront to international law".[304][305] Between 2009 and 2013, approximately 60,000 people crossed into Israel from various African countries.[306] Netanyahu said that, "this phenomenon is very grave and threatens the social fabric of society, our national security and our national identity."[307] Many of these migrants are held in detention camps in the Negev desert.[308] When the Supreme Court of Israel declared the "Prevention of Infiltration Law" illegal for permitting immediate and indefinite detention of asylum seekers from Africa, Netanyahu requested new legislation to work around the Supreme Court ruling.[309]
Netanyahu is critical of what he sees as the overly open immigration policy of EU nations. Netanyahu has urged the leaders of Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland to close their borders to illegal immigration.[310]
Personal life
Family
| Nathan Mileikowsky (1879–1935) Writer, Zionist activist | Sarah Lurie | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tzila Segal (1912–2000) | Benzion Netanyahu (1910–2012) Historian | Elisha Netanyahu (1912–1986) Mathematician | Shoshana Shenburg (1923–) Supreme Court justice | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yonatan Netanyahu (1946–1976) Military Commander | Benjamin Netanyahu (1949–) Prime Minister of Israel | Iddo Netanyahu (1952–) Physician, playwright | Nathan Netanyahu (1951–) Computer scientist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
_-_P.M._Netanyahu_at_Memorial_Service_for_Yoni.jpg)
Family and background
Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv,[311] to Prof. Benzion Netanyahu (original name Mileikowsky) and Tzila (Cela; née Segal). His mother was born in 1912 in Petah Tikva, then in Ottoman Palestine, now Israel. Though all his grandparents were born in the Russian Empire (now Belarus, Lithuania and Poland), his mother's parents emigrated to Minneapolis in the United States.[312] He is related to Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna (the Vilna Gaon) on his paternal side.[313]
Netanyahu's father, Benzion, was a professor of Jewish history at Cornell University,[314] editor of the Encyclopaedia Hebraica, and a senior aide to Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who remained active in research and writing into his nineties. Regarding the Palestinian people, he stated: "That they won't be able to face [anymore] the war with us, which will include withholding food from Arab cities, preventing education, terminating electrical power and more. They won't be able to exist, and they will run away from here. But it all depends on the war, and whether we will win the battles with them."[315]
Netanyahu's paternal grandfather was Nathan Mileikowsky, a leading Zionist rabbi and JNF fundraiser.[316] Netanyahu's older brother, Yonatan, was killed in Uganda during Operation Entebbe in 1976. His younger brother, Iddo, is a radiologist and writer. All three brothers served in the Sayeret Matkal reconnaissance unit of the Israel Defense Forces.
Marriages and relationships
_-_P.M._BENJAMIN_NETANYAHU_LIGHTING_HANUKA_CANDLES_WITH_HIS_WIFE_AND_SONS.jpg)
Netanyahu has been married three times. Netanyahu's first marriage was to Miriam Weizmann, whom he met in Israel. Weizmann lived near Yonatan Netanyahu's apartment in Jerusalem, where Netanyahu was based during his military service. By the time Netanyahu's service was finished, Weizmann had completed her own military service and a degree in chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1972, they both left to study in the United States, where she enrolled in Brandeis University, while Netanyahu studied at MIT. They married soon afterward. The couple had one daughter, Noa (born 29 April 1978).
In 1978, while Weizmann was pregnant, Netanyahu met a non-Jewish[317] British student named Fleur Cates at the university library, and began an affair. His marriage ended in divorce soon afterward, when his wife Miriam discovered the affair.[317] In 1981, Netanyahu married Cates, and she converted to Judaism.[318] The couple divorced in 1984.[319]
His third wife, Sara Ben-Artzi, was working as a flight attendant on an El Al flight from New York to Israel when they met.[62][317] She was in the process of completing a master's degree in psychology.[320] The couple married in 1991. They have two sons: Yair (born 26 July 1991), a former soldier in the IDF Spokesperson's Unit,[321] and Avner (born 10 October 1994), a national Bible champion and winner of the National Bible Quiz for Youth in Kiryat Shmona.[322]
In 1993, Netanyahu confessed on live television to having had an affair with Ruth Bar, his public relations adviser. He said that a political rival had planted a secret video camera that had recorded him in a sexually compromising position with Bar, and that he had been threatened with the release of the tape to the press unless he quit the Likud leadership race. Netanyahu and Sara repaired their marriage, and he was elected to the leadership of Likud.[323] In 1996, the media reported that he had a 20-year friendship with Katherine Price-Mondadori, an Italian-American woman.[317][324] During the 1990s, Netanyahu criticized this media intrusion into his private life, claiming that political rivals including David Levy had hired spies to try to gather evidence of alleged affairs. The Israeli public are generally not interested in their politicians' private lives and would prefer they remained private.[325]
On 1 October 2009, his daughter Noa Netanyahu-Roth (married to Daniel Roth) gave birth to a boy, Shmuel.[326][327] In 2011, Noa and her husband Daniel had a second son named David,[328] and in 2016 had a daughter. Noa is a baalat teshuva (someone born to a secular family who returned to Orthodox Judaism) and lives in Mea Shearim with her family.[329]
Relations with foreign leaders
Netanyahu has a close relationship with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, their having known each other for decades due to the privileged relationship between the Likud Party and the EPP, the European People's Party. Orban particularly admired Netanyahu while he was working as Finance Minister, and received advice from him while Netanyahu was Finance Minister of Israel.[330]
Netanyahu has been noted for his close and friendly relationship with then Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.[331] Netanyahu has said of Berlusconi: "We are lucky that there is a leader such as yourself."[332] Netanyahu has described Berlusconi as "one of the greatest friends".[331][333]
Netanyahu has a warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, touting their "personal friendship" in April 2019.[334][335]
During the 2011 G-20 Cannes summit, then French president Nicolas Sarkozy was overheard saying to then U.S. President Barack Obama, "I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar", and Obama reportedly responded, "You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day."[336][337]
Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump have known each other for many years.[338] Netanyahu had been a friend of Donald Trump's father when Netanyahu lived in New York during the 1980s, serving as UN ambassador.[46] In 2013, Trump made a video endorsing Netanyahu during the Israeli elections saying, "vote for Benjamin – terrific guy, terrific leader, great for Israel". In June 2019, Netanyahu officially renamed a settlement in the disputed Golan Heights after Donald Trump.[339][340]
Netanyahu has close ties with the congressional leadership of the U.S. Republican Party and with its 2012 presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. He and Romney first became acquainted when both worked at the Boston Consulting Group in the mid-1970s.[341][342] Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has been friendly with Netanyahu for many years. In November 2011[343] and in the 2012 U.S. vice presidential debate,[344] Biden stated that the relationship has lasted for 39 years. Netanyahu remarked in March 2010 during a joint statement with Biden during his visit of Israel[345] that their friendship had started almost three decades prior.
In October 2014, author Jeffrey Goldberg related a conversation in which Goldberg said a senior official of the Obama administration called Netanyahu a "chickenshit" after Netanyahu accused U.S. President Barack Obama of "acting contrary to American values". Goldberg went on to say that Netanyahu and his cabinet were largely to blame for the tensions between the Netanyahu and Obama governments.[346] Secretary of State John Kerry phoned Netanyahu to clarify that "such statements are disgraceful, unacceptable and damaging" and "do not reflect the position of the United States".[347] Netanyahu responded by saying "I'm being attacked because of my determination to defend Israel's interests. The safety of Israel is not important to those who attack me anonymously and personally."[348] Because of evident rifts between Netanyahu and members of the Obama administration, observers have characterized the relationship as having reached a crisis level by October 2014.[349][350] The relationship between Netanyahu and the Obama administration had become problematic enough that Jeffrey Goldberg reported in November 2014 that his conversations with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials indicated Israel would wait until a new U.S. president is elected before attempting to repair the relationship with the White House. According to Alon Pinkas, a former diplomat and adviser to Israeli prime ministers, "Netanyahu’s self-righteousness that this resolution is going to be changed or reversed by Trump is totally unfounded."[351]
On 23 December 2016, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling for an end to Israeli settlements. In a departure from longstanding American policy, the U.S. abstained from the vote and did not exercise its veto power. At the behest of the Netanyahu government, President-elect Trump attempted to intercede by publicly advocating the resolution be vetoed and successfully persuading Egypt's Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to temporarily withdraw it from consideration.[352] The resolution was then "proposed again by Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela" – and passed 14 to 0. Netanyahu's office alleged that "the Obama administration not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes", adding: "Israel looks forward to working with President-elect Trump and with all our friends in Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to negate the harmful effects of this absurd resolution."[353][354][355]
In early 2018 the Polish parliament adopted a new Polish law criminalizing suggestions that Poles were collectively complicit in Holocaust-related or other war crimes that had been committed during World War II by the Axis powers.[356][357] Later that year at the Munich Security Conference, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said "it is not going to be seen as criminal to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators (...) not only German perpetrators" implicated in the Jewish Holocaust.[358] Netanyahu called his Polish counterpart's comment "outrageous" for saying that Jews had been among the Holocaust's perpetrators.[359] The resulting crisis in Israel–Poland relations was resolved in late June that year when the two prime ministers issued a joint communiqué endorsing research into the Jewish Holocaust and condemning the misnomer "Polish concentration camps".[360]
According to Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, during the visit of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Jerusalem, Netanyahu failed to publicly address Ukraine's official policy of rehabilitating local Nazi collaborators like UPA leader Roman Shukhevych who had participated in the murder of Jews.[361]
Netanyahu has developed a close relationship with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro following Bolsonaro's election in 2018.[362][363]
Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have tense relations.[364] In March 2019, after being denounced by Turkey as a racist for saying that Israel was the nation-state of the Jewish people only, Netanyahu called Erdoğan a dictator and mocked him for imprisoning journalists in a tweet.[365] In response, Erdoğan called Netanyahu as "the thief who heads Israel", referencing the ongoing corruption scandals against Netanyahu. In the same speech, Erdoğan further escalated the spat by addressing to Netanyahu directly, saying "you are a tyrant. You are a tyrant who slaughters 7-year-old Palestinian kids",[365] and further in April 2018, calling Israel "terror state" and Netanyahu "terrorist".[366] Netanyahu tweeted that "Erdoğan is among Hamas's biggest supporters and there is no doubt that he well understands terrorism and slaughter."[367] Netanyahu condemned the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria and warned against ethnic cleansing of Kurds by Turkey and its proxies.[368]
Authored books
- International Terrorism: Challenge and Response. Transaction Publishers. 1981. ISBN 978-0878558940.
- Terrorism: How the West Can Win. Avon. 1987. ISBN 978-0380703210.
- Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1995. ISBN 978-0374154929.
- A Durable Peace: Israel and Its Place Among the Nations. Grand Central Publishing. 1999 [1993]. ISBN 978-0446523066.
See also
References
- "Benjamin Netanyahu". Biography. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
- "Ministers by Ministry". www.knesset.gov.il.
- "Netanyahu". Dictionary.com – Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
- Heller, Aron (17 July 2019). "Netanyahu makes history as Israel's longest-serving leader". Associated Press. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
- Williams, Dan (18 July 2019). "Bruised but driven, Netanyahu becomes Israel's longest-serving PM". Reuters. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
- Moyer, Justin (3 March 2015). "Why Benjamin Netanyahu is so tough: He's from Philadelphia". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 5 March 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- Remnick, David (23 January 2013). "Bibi's Blues". The New Yorker.
- Dempsey, Judy (3 May 2012). "The Enduring Influence of Benjamin Netanyahu's Father". Carnegie Europe.
- Buhbut, Amir. "Sayeret Matkal is 50 years old". NRG Maariv.
- Ginsburg, Mitch (25 October 2012). "Saving Sergeant Netanyahu". The Times of Israel.
- Mitchell, Thomas G. (2015). Likud Leaders. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 186. ISBN 978-0786497133.
- "Netanyahu elected as Likud party chairman". Xinhua News Agency. 20 December 2005. Archived from the original on 27 February 2006. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
- Hoffman, Gil (10 February 2009). "Kadima wins, but rightist bloc biggest". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
- "Netanyahu sworn in as Israel's prime minister". Haaretz. 31 March 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- Heller, Jeffrey (31 March 2009). "Netanyahu sworn in as Israeli prime minister". Reuters. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- Tobin, Amir; Birnbaum, Ben (20 March 2015). "'Is This Ship Sinking?' Inside the Collapse of the Campaign Against Netanyahu". The New Yorker. New York City: Condé Nast.
- Gil Hoffman (21 November 2019). "Rivlin hands over mandate, begs MKs to prevent third election". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- Eglash, Ruth (17 May 2020). "After three elections and political deadlock, Israel finally swears in new government". Washington Post. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
- "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be indicted on corruption charges". NBC News. 28 February 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
- Wootliff, Raoul (21 November 2019). "AG announces Netanyahu to stand trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust". Times of Israel. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
- Levinson, Chaim (23 November 2019). "Netanyahu to Relinquish Ministerial Portfolios in Coming Days". Haaretz. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
- Staff writer (23 November 2019). "Netanyahu said set to give up 4 ministry portfolios after charges announced". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
- Itamar Eichner (25 May 2016) "Netanyahu: I have Sephardic roots as well", Ynetnews
- Winer, Stuart. "Netanyahu reveals his roots go back to Spain". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
- Lidman, Melanie (28 August 2012). "PM was 'responsible' sixth-grader, evaluation shows". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
- "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu". Ynetnews. 10 February 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2013.
- Gresh, Alain; Vidal, Dominique (2004). The New A–Z of the Middle East (2nd ed.). I.B. Tauris. p. 217. ISBN 978-1-86064-326-2.
- Melman, Yossi (18 November 2010). "More than six decades on, Israel memorializes late commander of British Army's Jewish Unit". Haaretz. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- "Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu: Commando turned PM". BBC News. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
- Ball, Charles H. (5 June 1996). "Professor recalls Netanyahu's intense studies in three fields". MIT Tech Talk. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- "40 שנה לאחור: היכן היו אז, המנהיגים של היום?" [40 years ago: where were the leaders of today?] (in Hebrew). Walla!. 13 September 2013.
- "Enrollment Statistics". MIT Office of the Registrar. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
- "The MIT 150: 150 Ideas, Inventions, and Innovators that Helped Shape Our World". The Boston Globe. 15 May 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- Cathy Hartley, David Lea, Paul Cossali, Annamarie Rowe, Survey of Arab-Israeli Relations (Taylor & Francis, 2004), p. 522
- "Profile: Benjamin Netanyahu". BBC News Online. 20 February 2009. Retrieved 9 March 2013.
- Ariel, Mira (2008). Pragmatics and Grammar. Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-55018-5.
- Barbaro, Michael (7 April 2012). "A Friendship Dating From 1976 Resonates in 2012". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
- Mazal Mualem (30 September 2014), "Netanyahu's rhetoric brings same old message" Archived 28 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Al-Monitor's Israel Pulse
- Video Benjamin Netanyahu 1978 on YouTube(English);Who is Ben Nitay, and why does he look so much like Binyamin Netanyahu? Jerusalem Post
- Shirley Anne Warshaw, The Clinton Years, (Infobase Publishing, 2009), p. 240
- "Benjamin Netanyahu". Netanyahu.org. Archived from the original on 16 November 2012. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
- https://books.google.co.il/books?id=SOm_DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA57
- David Singer, American Jewish Yearbook. AJC, 1998. pp. 133–34
- Netanyahu, Benjamin (24 September 2009). "Truth vs. Darkness in the United Nations". Chabad.org. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- Netanyahu, Benjamin (2011). The Light of Truth at the UN (Speech). New York City: Chabad.org. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- Gabriel Sherman (1 June 2016), "Trump Is Considering a Pre-Convention Visit to Israel" New York
- "Netanyahu wins battle for leadership of Likud". The Independent. London. 26 March 1993. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
- Brinkley, Joel (30 June 2012). "Yitzhak Shamir, Former Israeli Prime Minister, Dies at 96". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- Kessel, Jerrold (11 February 1996). "Israeli elections will test support for peace". CNN. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- Morris, Nomi; Silver, Eric (7 October 1996). "Israel Opens Disputed Tunnel". Maclean's. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2013.
- Wyler, Grace (31 January 2013). "Step Inside The Hidden Tunnels Under Jerusalem's Sacred Western Wall". Business Insider. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- Arafat, Netanyahu shake hands, begin talks 4 September 1996, CNN
- Joint press conference with Prime Minister Netanyahu and PA Chairman Arafat, 4 September 1996 Vol. 16: 1996–1997, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Netanyahu, Arafat shake hands on Hebron accord 14 January 1997, CNN
- Hawas, Akram T. The new alliance: Turkey and Israel "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 22 February 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2007.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link). The fourth Nordic conference on Middle Eastern Studies: The Middle East in globalizing world. Oslo, 13–16 August 1998.
- "Khaled Meshaal: How Mossad bid to assassinate Hamas leader ended in fiasco". The Telegraph. 7 December 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
- Laura Zittrain Eisenberg; Neil Caplan (2010). Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace, Second Edition: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities. Indiana University Press. p. 130. ISBN 978-0253004574. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
- "Israel Reforms Economy on Eve of Independence Day". Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
- Schmemann, Serge (26 July 1997). "In Fight Over Privatization, Netanyahu Wins a Round". The New York Times.
- Wilkinson, Tracy (29 March 2000). "Israeli Police Want Netanyahu, Wife Indicted Over Handling of State Gifts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
- "Netanyahu Corruption Charges Dropped". CBS News. 11 February 2009. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
- "Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud". Ynetnews. 28 March 2005. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
- "Netanyahu Now High-Tech Consultant". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. 3 August 1999. Retrieved 20 September 2012.
- Freund, Oren (19 September 2012). חברת העבר של בנימין נתניהו נרשמה למסחר בבורסה בת"א [Past company of Benjamin Netanyahu listed for trade on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange]. TheMarker (in Hebrew). Retrieved 16 March 2010.
- "Sharon Beats Netanyahu in Likud Primary". Fox News Channel. 28 November 2002. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
- "Concordia University Imposes Ban on Middle East Events". Canadian Association of University Teachers. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- Levin, Steve; Roddy, Dennis; Schackner, Bill; Guidry, Nate (2 October 2002). "Netanyahu says U.S. should topple Saddam". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- "Iraq 2002, Iran 2012: Compare and contrast Netanyahu's speeches". Haaretz. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
- "Kerry Reminds Congress Netanyahu Advised U.S. to Invade Iraq". The New York Times. 25 February 2015. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
- Asa-El, Amotz. "3 economic lessons from Ariel Sharon". MarketWatch.
- Likud Leaders, Thomas G. Mitchell, McFarland, (March 2015), Chapter 10
- "Netanyahu's Economic Reforms And The Laffer Curve". Forbes.
- Hoffman, Gil (21 November 2005). "Netanyahu: Sharon is a dictator". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
- Alon, Gideon; Mualem, Mazal; Shragai, Nadav (26 October 2004). "Knesset approves PM Sharon's disengagement plan". Haaretz. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- Farrell, Stephen (8 August 2005). "Netanyahu resigns from Cabinet over Gaza withdrawal". The Times. London. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
- Marciano, Ilan (28 March 2006). "Likud stunned by collapse". Ynetnews. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
- "Netanyahu wins Likud leadership". BBC News. 15 August 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
- Mitnick, Joshua (20 June 2008). "Olmert: Truce with Hamas 'fragile'". The Washington Times. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
- "Netanyahu Undergoes Medical Examination". Arutz Sheva. 4 October 2009. Retrieved 15 October 2009.
- Tran, Mark (31 July 2008). "Netanyahu calls for new Israeli elections". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
- Mualem, Mazal (24 September 2008). "Netanyahu rejects Livni's call for unity government". Haaretz. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- Colvin, Marie (8 February 2009). "Netanyahu stokes fears to take poll lead". The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 8 February 2009.
- "Clinton pledges to press for Palestinian state". Pakistan. The Daily Times. 4 March 2009. Archived from the original on 13 January 2012.
- "In Israel, Clinton pledges to work with new government". The New York Times. 3 March 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Rabinovitch, Ari (16 April 2009). "Israel demands Palestinians recognize Jewish state". International Business Times. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- "Netanyahu backs demilitarized Palestinian state". Haaretz. 14 June 2009. Retrieved 14 May 2012.
- Federman, Josef (14 June 2009). "Netanyahu Peace Speech: Israeli Prime Minister Appeals To Arab Leaders For Peace". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 14 June 2009.
- Ravid, Barak (5 July 2009). "Netanyahu: We have consensus on two-state solution". Haaretz. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Berger, Robert (3 July 2009). "Poll Gives Netanyahu Positive Marks Despite Rift with US". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- Baldwin, Leigh (11 August 2009). "Nablus booms as barriers fall in occupied West Bank". The Daily Star. Lebanon. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Thomas Friedman (9 August 2009). "Green Shoots in Palestine II". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
- Abu Toameh, Khaled (17 July 2009). "West Bank boom". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
- "Netanyahu supports Arab peace initiative". United Press International. 24 July 2009. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
- Ravid, Barak (23 July 2009). "Netanyahu to Arabs: Saudi plan can help bring peace". Haaretz. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Waked, Ali (26 September 2009). "Palestinians: Abbas open to meeting with Netanyahu". Ynetnews. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
- Bengal, Mia (2 September 2009). התוכנית האמריקאית: פסגה צנועה והצהרת עקרונות (in Hebrew). Maariv. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
- Berger, Robert (4 September 2009). "Israel to Approve More Settlement Construction Before Freeze". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- Benhorin, Yitzhak (4 September 2009). "US, EU slam Netanyahu's approval of construction". Ynetnews. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Smith, Ben (4 September 2009). "U.S official: Settlement move won't 'derail train'". Politico. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
- "Report: PM held secret talks in Russia". Ynetnews. 10 September 2009. Retrieved 11 September 2009.
- "Palestinian paper: Netanyahu visited Arab state". Ynetnews. 8 September 2009. Retrieved 11 September 2009.
- Ferris-Rotman, Amie; Heller, Jeffrey; Fletcher, Philippa (9 September 2009). "Netanyahu secretly visited Russia: reports". Reuters. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Bekker, Vita; Clover, Charles; Wagstyl, Stefan (11 September 2009). "Netanyahu absence sparks rumours of Russia visit". Financial Times. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- Heller, Jeffrey (10 September 2009). "Netanyahu draws fire in Israel over secret trip". Reuters. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- "Israeli PM's secret trip irks media". Al Jazeera English. 11 September 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Harel, Amos (11 September 2009). "Netanyahu aide likely to pay price for 'secret' Russia trip". Haaretz. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- Mahnaimi, Uzi; Franchetti, Mark; Swain, Jon (4 October 2009). "Israel names Russians helping Iran build nuclear bomb". The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
- "Netanyahu speech / PM slams Gaza probe, challenges UN to confront Iran". Haaretz. 24 September 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- "PM to UN: Iran fueled by fundamentalism". Ynetnews. 24 September 2009. Retrieved 24 September 2009.
- "Israel's Netanyahu hits back at Iran's Holocaust claims". 3 News. 25 September 2009. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- "Analysis: Settlers Have Been Working for Months to Undermine Construction Freeze, Situation on the Ground Suggests that There Will Be Nearly No Change in Settlement Construction". Haaretz. 27 November 2009.
- Gollust, David (25 November 2009). "US Welcomes Israeli Settlement Move, Urges Palestinians to Enter Negotiations". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Sofer, Roni (25 November 2009). "Cabinet votes on 10-month building freeze". Ynetnews. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- "Palestinians reject Netanyahu's offer of partial settlement freeze". France 24. 26 November 2009. Archived from the original on 28 November 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2009.
- "'We'll prevent future embarrassments'". The Jerusalem Post. 14 March 2010. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
- Frenkel, Sheera (16 March 2010). "Anger in Ramat Shlomo as settlement row grows". The Times. London. Retrieved 16 March 2010.
- Ravid, Barak; Mozgovaya, Natasha; Khoury, Jack (21 March 2010). "Netanyahu and Obama to meet Tuesday in Washington". Haaretz. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- "Mideast peace talks open to qualified optimism". NBC News. 1 September 2010. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
- Dougherty, Jill; Labott, Elise (27 September 2010). "U.S. pushes talks as Israel resumes settlement building". CNN. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- Ravid, Barak; Ashkenazi, Eli (6 September 2011). "Likud defends Netanyahu after report Gates called him 'ungrateful'". Haaretz. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- Ravid, Barak (6 September 2011). "Gates called Netanyahu an ungrateful ally to U.S. and a danger to Israel". Haaretz. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- Netanyahu And Foe Tangle Over Pollard, New York Daily News.
- Ross, Dennis. Statecraft: And How to Restore America's Standing in the World. 2008, p. 213
- Clinton, Bill. My Life: The Presidential Years. 2005, p. 468
- "Former PM Netanyahu Visits Pollard in Prison". Netanyahu.org. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
- Mozgovaya, Natasha. "Netanyahu to formally call for release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard". Haaretz. Israel. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
- Hoffman, Gil (19 May 2011). "Netanyahu reassures Esther Pollard ahead of DC trip". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 19 September 2012. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
- Lis, Jonathan (9 November 2010). "Netanyahu's plea to Obama: Release Jonathan Pollard". Haaretz. Israel. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
- "The recommendations of the Trajtenberg Committee were submitted today to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance" (PDF) (Press release). Ministry of Finance. 27 September 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 December 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- Moti Bassok & Jonathan Lis (9 October 2011). "Netanyahu strikes deal with Yisrael Beiteinu to approve Trajtenberg report". Haaretz. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- Avi Bar-Eli, Meirav Arlosoroff & Ora Coren (15 November 2011). "Despite PM's promises, most Trajtenberg recommendations may never become law". The Marker. Archived from the original on 16 January 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- "Israel – Campaigning – Cabinet announces fibre optic internet access in every home". Trade Bridge Consultants.
- "Israelis are already winners from the fiber optic venture, Gad Perez, Views". Globes.
- Lis, Jonathan; Bar-Zohar, Ophir (8 May 2012). "In surprise move, Netanyahu, Mofaz agree to form unity government, cancel early elections". Haaretz. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
- Winer, Stuart; Ahren, Raphael (14 May 2012). "PM promises Abbas a demilitarized Palestinian state". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 14 May 2012.
- Leshem, Elie. "Netanyahu, Liberman announce they'll run joint list for Knesset". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
- Davidoff, Steven. "Overhaul of Israel's Economy Offers Lessons for United States". The New York Times Dealbook blog.
- "What is Israel's new Business Concentration Law and why should we care?". Haaretz. 29 December 2013.
- "Netanyahu: Era of ports monopoly is over". Globes English.
- "Netanyahu vows to free economy of regulation and bureaucracy". Haaretz. 27 February 2014.
- Peter Beaumont, "Israel condemns US for backing Palestinian unity government", The Guardian 3 June 2014]
- Jodi Rudoren (15 June 2014). "Netanyahu Says Three Were Taken by Hamas". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
- James Marc Leas, 'Attack First, Kill First and Claim Self-Defense: Palestine Subcommittee Submission to UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict,' Council for the National Interest 21 January 2015.
- "Teens' bodies found". Haaretz. 1 July 2014.
- Ori Lewis (1 July 2014). "Israel mourns teenagers, strikes Hamas in Gaza". Reuters. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
- "IDF's Operation 'Protective Edge' Begins Against Gaza". The Jewish Press. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
- "Hamas genocidal terrorists says Netanyahu". Israel News.Net. 21 July 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
- Fournier, Ron (28 July 2014). "Why Benjamin Netanyahu Should Be Very, Very Worried". Defense One. National Journal. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
- "Israel approves $4 billion privatization plan for next three years". Reuters. 5 October 2016.
- "Netanyahu: White House criticism of Israel is un-American". New York Post. 5 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
- Ravid, Barak (7 October 2014). "White House Responds to Netanyahu: American Values Gave Israel the Iron Dome". Haaretz.
- Goldberg, Jeffrey (28 October 2014). "The Crisis in U.S.–Israel Relations Is Officially Here".
- "Knesset votes to dissolve, sets new elections for March 17". The Times of Israel. 8 December 2014.
- "Netanyahu to address US Congress in February". The Jerusalem Post. 1 January 2015.
- "Report: Netanyahu tried to prevent Mossad briefing for US Senators on Iran", Ynet 15 March 2015.
- "Exclusive: Netanyahu Canceled Intel Briefing for U.S. Senators on Iran Dangers", Time 14 March 2015.
- Consuls in U.S. warn: Israel's friends fear Netanyahu's speech to Congress will harm ties Haaretz, 5 February 2015
- Dianne Feinstein: Benjamin Netanyahu 'Arrogant' For Claiming To Speak For All Jews Huffington Post, 1 March 2015
- J Street launches campaign against Netanyahu Times of Israel, 10 February 2015
- How dare Netanyahu speak in the name of America's Jews? Haaretz, 9 February 2015
- Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews protest in NYC over Netanyahu's speech Haaretz, 4 March 2015
- Netanyahu does not speak for all American Jews The Washington Post, 20 February 2015
- Moran Azulay,"Netanyahu says no Palestinian state if he remains PM", Ynet 16 March 2015:'"Whoever moves to establish a Palestinian state or intends to withdraw from territory is simply yielding territory for radical Islamic terrorist attacks against Israel",'
- "Netanyahu Backtracks on Election Pledge to Refuse a Two-State Solution After Sharp Words from the US". vice.com. 19 March 2015.
- "Rivlin grants Netanyahu 2 week extension to form coalition", The Jerusalem Post, 20 April 2015
- "In the 11th hour, Netanyahu finalizes 61-strong coalition". The Times of Israel. Jerusalem. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
Prime minister reaches deal with Jewish home's Bennett, finalizing a right-wing government; two men set to deliver a statement; Ayelet Shaked will be named justice minister.
- Heller, Jeffery (6 May 2015). "Netanyahu clinches deal to form new Israeli government". Reuters. London. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
- Hoffman, Gil (28 May 2015). "Netanyahu vows to run in next election, boost Likud". The Jerusalem Post. Jerusalem, Israel. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared for the first time Wednesday that he intends to run for an unprecedented fifth term in the next general election, promising to lead the Likud to 40 seats.
- "Cabinet approves state budget for 2015-2016". The Times of Israel.
- "State budget passes after marathon talks". The Jerusalem Post.
- Shtrasler, Nehemia (17 November 2015). "Israel Set to Pass a Disappointing Budget". Haaretz.
- Rudoren, Jodi (21 October 2015). "Netanyahu, Saying Palestinian Mufti Inspired Holocaust, Draws Broad Criticism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
- Richards, Victoria (21 October 2015). "Benjamin Netanyahu blames Holocaust on Palestinian leader Haj Amin al-Husseini". The Independent. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
- "Netanyahu: Hitler Didn't Want to Exterminate the Jews". Haaretz. 21 October 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
- Aderet, Ofer (22 October 2015). "Mass murder of Jews in Europe started months before Hitler met mufti, historians say". Haaretz. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
- Connolly, Kate (21 October 2015). "Germany refuses to accept Netanyahu's claim Palestinian inspired Holocaust". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
- Sokol, Sam (21 October 2015). "Netanyahu's Holocaust distortion obscures Mufti's collaboration, say historians". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
- Tate, Emily (22 October 2015). "Under-fire Netanyahu criticised over 'a form of Holocaust denial'". Irish Independent. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
- "Netanyahu facing crisis as haredim vow to quit over Western Wall pluralism". The Jerusalem Post, 7 March 2016
- Collinson, Stephen; Wright, David; Labott, Elise (24 December 2016). "US Abstains as UN Demands End to Israeli Settlements". CNN. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- Sanger, David E. (28 December 2016). "Kerry Rebukes Israel, Calling Settlements a Threat to Peace". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- Barak, Ravid (26 December 2016). "Netanyahu on UN Settlement Vote: Israel Will Not Turn the Other Cheek". Haaretz. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- "Israel-Palestinians: Netanyahu Condemns John Kerry Speech". BBC. 29 December 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- "Israel Halts $6 million to UN to Protest UN Settlements Vote". Fox News (from the Associated Press). 6 January 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lands in Sydney amid controversy", ABC News Online, 22 February 2017
- "Israel to Join US in Quitting Unesco". BBC News. 12 October 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- Irish, John (12 October 2017). "U.S., Israel Quit U.N. Heritage Agency Citing Bias". Reuters. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- Landau, Noa (22 December 2017). "Following in U.S.' Footsteps, Israel Announces Exit From UNESCO". Haaretz. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- "Israel Joins US in Announcing Withdrawal from UNESCO". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 24 December 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- "Joining US, Israel Formally Notifies UNESCO of Withdrawal". Deutsche Welle. 29 December 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- Landau, Noa (31 December 2017). "Israel Officially Resigns From UNESCO, Following U.S." Haaretz. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- Hacohen, Hagay (29 December 2017). "Racing Against the Clock, Israel Submits Letter Quitting UNESCO". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- "Israel Says it Succeeded in Bid to Withdraw from UNESCO by 2019, Official Says". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 29 December 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- "Netanyahu Unveils Secret Iranian Nuclear Program". The Jerusalem Post. 30 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- "Netanyahu congratulates Trump on Kim summit, Iran policy". i24NEWS. 12 June 2018.
- Halbfinger, David M.; Kershner, Isabel (19 July 2018). "Israeli Law Declares the Country the 'Nation-State of the Jewish People'". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
- Lis, Jonathan; Landau, Noa (19 July 2018). "Israel Passes Controversial Jewish Nation-state Bill After Stormy Debate". Haaretz. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
- Eglash, Ruth (19 July 2018). "Contentious Nation-State Law Declaring Israel the Jewish Homeland Approved by Lawmakers". The Washington Post. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
- Halbfinger, David M. (20 July 2018). "Israel Cements Right-Wing Agenda in a Furious Week of Lawmaking". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
- Michal Wilner. "Who are the Kahanists of Otzma Netanyahu opened Knesset door to? - Israel Elections". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
- Halbfinger, David M. (24 February 2019). "Netanyahu Sparks Outrage Over Pact With Racist Party". The New York Times.
- "Otzma Yehudit's history of racism and provocation". Ynetnews. 21 February 2019.
- "Netanyahu pledges to annex occupied Jordan Valley". 10 September 2019. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
- Amnon Abramovich. תיק הבדיקה נגד נתניהו נחשף: ראש הממשלה חשוד בקבלת טובות הנאה [Examination file against Netanyahu revealed: Prime Minister is suspected of receiving favors] (in Hebrew). Reshet. Archived from the original on 30 December 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
- "Netanyahu questioned by Israeli police for a second time in graft probe". The Daily Telegraph. AP. 6 January 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
- "Benjamin Netanyahu suspected of bribery, fraud, Israeli police say". CBS. AP. 4 August 2017.
- Hovel, Revital (4 August 2017). "Former Netanyahu Aide Ari Harow Reaches Deal to Become State's Witness". Haaretz.
- "Israel PM Netanyahu faces corruption charges". BBC News. 13 February 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
- "Report: Netanyahu's prosecutor recommends indictment in two cases". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
- Bandel, Netael (21 November 2019). "Netanyahu Charged With Bribery, Fraud and Breach of Trust, Capping a Dramatic Political Year". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 22 November 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
- Holmes, Oliver (21 November 2019). "Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu indicted for bribery and fraud". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- Felicia Schwartz; Dov Lieber (22 November 2019). "Israel's Netanyahu Is Indicted on Bribery and Fraud Charges". The Wall Street Journal. CCLXXIV (123). p. A1.
- David M. Halbfinger (21 November 2019). "Israel's Netanyahu Indicted on Charges of Fraud, Bribery and Breach of Trust". The New York Times.
- Heller, Jeffrey; Williams, Dan (21 November 2019). "Israel's attorney general indicts PM Netanyahu on corruption charges". Reuters. Archived from the original on 22 November 2019. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- "Netanyahu indicted in court after removing immunity request". The Guardian. 28 January 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
- "Was the delay of Netanyahu's trial cynical or legal? – analysis". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
- Netanyahu: Corporate media is responsible for Israeli crony capitalism By Guy Rolnik, 11.04.14
- Beyond Regionalism?: Regional Cooperation, Regionalism and Regionalization in the Middle East, by Cilja Harders, Matteo Legrenzi (Ashgate 2013), p. 191
- Arik: The Life of Ariel Sharon, By David Landau, (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 2014), Chapter 14
- Foreign investment in Israel at record levels Globes, 26 September 2005, Zeev Klein
- The Political Right in Israel: Different Faces of Jewish Populism, by Dani Filc, (Routledge, 2009), p. 65
- Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1995. p. 19. ISBN 978-0374154929.
- Thomas, Gordon. Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad, Macmillan Publishers (2009) p. 145
- Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1995. pp. 8–9. ISBN 978-0374154929.
- Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1995. p. 33. ISBN 978-0374154929.
- Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1995. p. 142. ISBN 978-0374154929.
- David Margolick (June 1996), "Star of Zion", Vanity Fair
- "Netanyahu demands death penalty for Halamish terrorist". Times of Israel. 27 July 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
- "Israeli leaders push for 'terrorist' death penalty". Times of Israel. AFP. 17 December 2017.
- "Gesetzesinitiative: Israel will Todesstrafe für Terroristen einführen". Faz.net – via www.faz.net.
- Editorial, Reuters (3 January 2018). "Israeli death penalty advocates win preliminary vote in parliament". Reuters.
- PM to LGBT community: Israel among world's most open countries 6 November 2015, The Jerusalem Post
- Omri Nahmias (11 June 2015). נתניהו בירך את קהילת הלהט"ב: "ישראל - מהפתוחות בעולם" [Netanyahu congratulates the LGBT community: "Israel – one of the most open in the world"] (in Hebrew). Walla!.
- "Knesset marks Gay Community Rights Day; PM Netanyahu: 'We must be guided by the conviction that every person is created in the image of God'" Publicized: 23 February 2016, Knesset Press Releases
- Judah Ari Gross (17 May 2015), "Israel failed Ethiopian community, president says at memorial" The Times of Israel
- Andrew Esensten (25 May 2012) "African Hebrew Israelites mark their modern day exodus from U.S". Haaretz
- Sells, Michael A. (2015). "Holocaust Abuse". Journal of Religious Ethics. 43 (4): 723–759. doi:10.1111/jore.12119.
- Beinart, Peter (27 September 2010). "How U.S. Jews Stymie Peace Talks". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- Glenn Kessler (16 July 2010). "Netanyahu: 'America is a thing you can move very easily'". The Washington Post.
- Sofer, Roni (9 August 2009). "Netanyahu vows not to repeat 'mistake' of Gaza pullout". Ynetnews. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
- Ravid, Barak (9 August 2009). "Netanyahu: I won't repeat Gaza evacuation mistake". Haaretz. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Dovid Efune, Netanyahu Says Stance On Security Requirements Has Become 'Firmer', Algemeiner Journal, 6 October 2014.
- Schneider, Howard (20 March 2009). "Poll Gives Netanyahu Positive Marks Despite Rift with US". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 March 2009.
- Benn, Aluf (1 March 2009). "Why isn't Netanyahu backing two-state solution?". Haaretz. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Ahren, Raphael (20 November 2008). "Netanyahu: Economics, not politics, is the key to peace". Haaretz. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Sofer, Roni (7 November 2008). "Netanyahu offers new peace vision". Ynetnews. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Susser, Leslie (2 February 2009). "Netanyahu Holds Big Lead in Prime Minister Race Polls". The Jewish Journal. Retrieved 11 July 2009.
- "Likud allow settlement expansion". BBC News. 26 January 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- "Netanyahu denies agreeing to peace talks based on '67 lines". The Jerusalem Post. 18 July 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
- Heller, Aron (26 January 2014). "Israeli official: Palestine should allow settlers". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
- "Netanyahu says he agreed to US proposal for talks with Palestinians based on '67 lines". The Jerusalem Post. 3 October 2014. Archived from the original on 3 October 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
- Elhanan Miller (12 June 2014), "Top Palestinian negotiator rips into 'discredited, useless' Abbas", The Times of Israel
- "Netanyahu: Trump Middle East peace plan 'deal of the century'". BBC News. 28 January 2020.
- "Full text of Binyamin Netanyahu's Bar Ilan speech". Haaretz. 15 June 2009. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
- Keinon, Herb (14 June 2009). "Netanyahu wants demilitarized PA state". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
- "Ministers split over Obama's Cairo speech". Ynetnews. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
- Ravid, Barak; Benn, Aluf (11 June 2009). "Netanyahu's speech: Yes to road map, no to settlement freeze". Haaretz. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Sofer, Roni (15 June 2009). "Netanyahu defends speech to party hardliners". Ynetnews. Retrieved 17 September 2009.
- "Likud members say PM gave in to US pressure". Ynetnews. 14 June 2009. Retrieved 17 September 2009.
- "Livni: Netanyahu doesn't believe in two-state solution". Haaretz. 7 July 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- "Peace Now Response to Bibi Netanyahu's Speech". Peace Now. 15 June 2009. Archived from the original on 23 September 2013. Retrieved 8 July 2009.
- "Netanyahu speech provokes mix of international reactions". Radio France. 15 June 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
- "Hamas slams Netanyahu's 'racist, extremist' ideology". Ynetnews. 14 June 2009. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
- Muhammad Yamany; Chen Gongzheng (15 June 2009). "Netanyahu's speech vexes Arabs". Xinhua News Agency. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
- Whatley, Stewart (15 June 2009). "Palestinians Condemn Netanyahu Speech" (video). The Huffington Post. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
- "Syria: Netanyahu's policy has everything but peace". Haaretz. 15 June 2009.
- "PM calls Mubarak to clarify stance". The Jerusalem Post. 16 June 2009. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
- John, Mark (15 June 2009). "EU gives cautious welcome to Netanyahu speech". Reuters. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- "White House reacts to Netanyahu's speech". CNN. 14 June 2009.
- "Report: Netanyahu says 9/11 terror attacks good for Israel". Haaretz. 16 April 2008. Archived from the original on 16 April 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
- Hirschberg, Peter (14 November 2006). "Netanyahu: It's 1938 and Iran is Germany; Ahmadinejad is preparing another Holocaust". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
- Byers, David; Hider, James (20 February 2009). "Binyamin Netanyahu targets Iran after he is appointed Prime Minister". The Times. London. Retrieved 24 September 2009.
- Melman, Yossi (15 March 2012). "Under Fire". Tablet. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
- Bergman, Ronen. "Ex-atomic agency chief: Netanyahu using scare tactics on Iran nuclear program". Ynetnews. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
- Bonner, Ethan (28 March 2012). "2 Israeli Leaders Make the Iran Issue Their Own". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
- "Israel: Possible Strike Against Iran's Nuclear Facilities" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. 28 September 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
- Shmulovich, Michael (28 April 2012). "Netanyahu, Barak 'not fit to lead Israel' and wrong on Iran". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
- "Olmert opposes strike on Iranian nuclear program". The Times of Israel. Associated Press. 25 April 2012. Archived from the original on 19 September 2010. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
Meir Dagan, Israel's ex-Mossad chief, told the station he supported Diskin.
- Yossi Melman (7 May 2011). "Former Mossad chief: Israel air strike on Iran 'stupidest thing I have ever heard'". Haaretz. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
- Oren, Amir (16 May 2012). "Top U.S. think tank warns against Israeli, American strike on Iran". Haaretz. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Ser, Sam (18 April 2012). "PM: 'Warning of Iranian threat is best way to honor Holocaust victims'". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
- Avner Cohen (19 March 2012). "Netanyahu's contempt for the Holocaust". Haaretz. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
- Shlomo Ben-Ami (4 April 2012). "Iran's Nuclear Grass Eaters". Project Syndicate. Retrieved 5 April 2012.
- "Netanyahu: Hezbollah, directed by Iran, carried out Burgas terror attack". The Times of Israel. 19 July 2012. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- "Iran unmoved by curbs, says Netanyahu". The Nation. Pakistan. 30 July 2012. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
- Ravid, Barak (3 August 2012). "Netanyahu: If Israel attacks Iran, I will take responsibility for the consequences". Haaretz. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- Ronen, Gil (27 September 2012). "Netanyahu: Red Line is when Iran Reaches 90% of Enriched Uranium". Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
- "Ahmadinejad blasts US, Israel in UN speech boycotted by Western diplomats". New York Post. 26 September 2012. Retrieved 28 September 2012.
- Seumas Milne, Ewen MacAskill and Clayton Swisher, 'Leaked cables show Netanyahu’s Iran bomb claim contradicted by Mossad,' The Guardian 23 February 2015.
- "PM Netanyahu is Interviewed for the First Time in the Persian-language Media". The Prime Minister of Israel Official Website. 3 October 2013. Archived from the original on 7 October 2013.
- "Qassem Soleimani: Iranians mourn as world reacts to death of Iran's top military official". Euronews. 3 January 2020. Archived from the original on 3 January 2020.
- Loeffler, James (13 February 2014). "Uncivil Damages: American victims of terrorism are suing a Chinese bank. Israel is trying to stop them". Slate. New York. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
- Balmer, Crispian (17 December 2014). "U.S. court urged to reject Israeli attempt to silence witness". Reuters. Jerusalem. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
- "Families Urge PM: Don't Give Into Terror". Miami: Arutz Sheva. 23 July 2013. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
- Benn, Evan (22 August 2013). "Weston family faces frustration of court fight after grief of terror bombing". Miami Herald. Miami. Archived from the original on 23 August 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
- Kahn, Gabe (18 October 2011). "Hamas: Israel Crossed its Own Red Lines". Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Vick, Karl (18 October 2011). "Gilad Shalit Release: Israel's Joy Tempered by Memories of an Intifadeh". Time. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- Harel, Amos. "IDF battle readiness to suffer if budget cut, senior officers warn". Haaretzr, 11 October 2011.
- Bassok, Moti (26 December 2011). "Netanyahu decides not to cut Israel's defense budget in 2012". Haaretz. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- "Israel to increase defence budget by $700m". Al Jazeera English. 9 January 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- Harel, Amos. "IDF to ground warplanes, freeze Iron Dome production over budget woes". Haaretz. 12 February 2012.
- Shapiro, Andrew J. "Ensuring Israel's Qualitative Military Edge". U.S. State Department, 4 November 2011.
- Haviv Rettig Gur (6 January 2014). "Inside Israel's White House: How Netanyahu runs the country". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
- "Israel: Asylum Seekers Blocked at Border". Human Rights Watch. 8 October 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- "Israel: New detention law violates rights of asylum-seekers". Amnesty International. 10 January 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- Fisher-Ilan, Allyn (3 June 2012). "Israel to jail illegal migrants for up to three years". Reuters. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- "Israel PM: illegal African immigrants threaten identity of Jewish state". The Guardian. 20 May 2012.
- "'We are prisoners here', say migrants at Israel's desert detention camp". The Daily Telegraph. 4 April 2014.
- Jewish refugee organization slams Netanyahu on asylum seekers Haaretz, 10 October 2014
- Ahren, Raphael (19 July 2017). "In hot mic comments, Netanyahu lashes EU's 'crazy' policy on Israel". The Times of Israel.
- "Biography: Benjamin Netanyahu". Likud. Archived from the original on 22 April 2009. Retrieved 15 September 2009.
- Ronn, J. Michoel (1990). The Dworskys of Lazdei: The History of a Lithuanian Jewish family from the mid-1700s until the Present. Brooklyn, NY: J.M. Ronn. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
- Tidhar, David (1947). Entsiklopediyah le-halutse ha-yishuv u-vonav. Tel-Aviv. p. v.1, pp.186–187.
- Brand, David (9 March 2004). "Lehman leads CU group into the desert to promote education – and peace". Cornell University. Archived from the original on 18 July 2008. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
- אביו של נתניהו: הוא לא היה רה"מ מוצלח (in Hebrew). Maariv. 2 April 2009. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
- Alpert, Zalman (29 April 2009). "The Maggid of Netanyahu". Zionist Organization of America. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
- Matthew Kalman (10 April 2013). "Netanyahu's women and the making of Psychobibi". The Times of Israel Blogs.
- Margolick, David. "Star of Zion". Vanity Fair.
- Hoffman, Gil (26 January 2014). "MKs slam Netanyahu over his son dating a non-Jewish Norwegian woman". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
- "Mrs. Sara Netanyahu". Office of the Prime Minister.
- Averbach, Li-or (10 April 2011). "Benjamin Netanyahu's son gets new IDF PR job". Globes. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- Gordon, Evelyn (17 March 2010). "Netanyahu Jr. wins National Bible Quiz". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
- "The Netanyahus: A colourful partnership". news.bbc.co.uk. 28 March 2000.
- "Who Fired the Prime Minister's Nanny? The Soup Thickens", by Jack Katzenell, Associated Press, 7 July 1996
- Politics and Society in Modern Israel: Myths and Realities, By Adam Garfinkle, M.E. Sharpe, 7 December 1999, p. 194.
- "Mazel Tov Mr. Prime Minister! Netanyahu's first grandson born". Haaretz. 1 October 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Miskin, Maayana (8 October 2009). "Photo Essay: Netanyahu's Grandson Named". Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
- Ronen, Gil. "Netanyahu Grandson Born – Inside Israel". Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
- Steger, David (17 February 2016). "Netanyahu Becomes a Zaide for the Third Time". matzav.com. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
- Hungarian PM: We share the same security concerns as Israel Friday 21 July 2017, Israel Hayom
- Akiva Eldar (14 June 2011), "Netanyahu has joined his buddy Berlusconi in an alliance of rejects", Haaretz
- Netanyahu to Berlusconi: Israel lucky to have you as a friend Aviad Glickman 02.01.10
- Berlusconi says Israel should be an EU member Telegraph, 2 February 2010
- "With Help From Putin, Netanyahu Uses a Soldier's Remains to Boost His Election Chances". The Daily Beast. 4 April 2019.
- "Putin, Netanyahu break ground on deeper Russia-Israel engagement". Al-Monitor. 4 April 2019.
- Report: Sarkozy calls Netanyahu 'liar' Ynet News, 7 November 2011.
- Sarkozy to Obama: I'm fed up with Netanyahu, CBS News, 8 November 2011.
- Donald Trump invites Benjamin Netanyahu to US after Israeli PM congratulates 'true friend of Israel' Lizzie Dearden, The Independent, 11/11/16
- "Golan Heights: Israel unveils 'Trump Heights' settlement". BBC News. 16 June 2019.
- "Israel announces new Golan Heights settlement named 'Trump Heights'". CNN. 17 June 2019.
- Jennifer Steinhauer & Steven Lee Myers (20 September 2011). "House G.O.P. Tightens Its Bond With Netanyahu". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
- Reston, Maeve (2 July 2012). "Romney to visit Israel, meet with Netanyahu". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
- Bernstein, Jared (18 November 2011). "In the Heart of Motor City, Vice President Biden Addresses Yeshiva Beth Yehuda". The White House. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- "Transcript And Audio: Vice Presidential Debate". NPR. 11 October 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- "Remarks by Vice President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu in a Joint Statement to the Press". The White House. 9 March 2010. Archived from the original on 2 April 2013. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- Jeffrey Goldberg, The Crisis In US–Israel Relations Is Officially Here. The Atlantic, 28 October 2014
- "Kerry phones Netanyahu to apologize over 'chickenshit' slur". The Jerusalem Post. 31 October 2014.
- "Netanyahu: I'm being attacked because of my determination to defend Israel's interests". The Jerusalem Post. 29 October 2014.
- Keinon, Herb (27 October 2014). "Israelis more likely to blame Obama, not Benjamin Netanyahu, for 'crisis' in ties with US". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
- Bogost, Ian (28 October 2014). "The Crisis in U.S.–Israel Relations Is Officially Here". The Atlantic. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
- Eglash, Ruth (25 December 2016). "Netanyahu summons U.S. envoy over anti-settlement resolution adopted by U.N." The Washington Post. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
- Baker, Peter (23 December 2016). "For Obama and Netanyahu, a Final Clash After Years of Conflict". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
- "Egypt: Trump convinced Sisi to withdraw UN resolution". Al Jazeera. 23 December 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
- "Egypt delays UN motion on Israel as Trump intervenes". BBC News. 23 December 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
- "Israeli settlements: UN Security Council calls for an end". BBC News. 23 December 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
- Israel and Poland try to tamp down tensions after Poland’s ‘death camp’ law sparks Israeli outrage, Washington Post, 28 January 2018
- Israel and Poland clash over proposed Holocaust law, Reuters, 28 January 2018
- "Statements by Mateusz Morawiecki and Sebastian Kurz". www.securityconference.de. Archived from the original on 19 March 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
- "Benjamin Netanyahu attacks Polish PM for saying Jews were among perpetrators of the Holocaust". The Independent. 18 February 2018.
- "The Latest: Party Head: Israel Confirms Polish View on Nazis". Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- "Holocaust scholars worry that memory is a victim of Israel's warming ties with Eastern Europe". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 29 January 2019.
- "Netanyahu embraces Brazil's far-right Bolsonaro in Israel". The Washington Post. 31 March 2019.
- "Brazil applauds Netanyahu-Bolsonaro bromance, new ties with Jewish state". Times of Israel. 3 January 2019.
- "Netanyahu: Erdogan's 'anti-Semitic' Jibe Desecrates Memory of Holocaust". Haaretz. 20 July 2019.
- "Erdogan calls Netanyahu 'thief' and 'tyrant' in latest spat". Associated Press. 13 March 2019.
- Erdogan Calls Netanyahu "terrorist", Israel "Terrorist State" Al-Jazeera
- Gary Willig; Nitzan Keidar (15 May 2018). "Israel expels Turkish consul". Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
- "Netanyahu Warns Against Turkey's Ethnic Cleansing of 'Gallant Kurds'; Vows to Assist". Haaretz. 10 October 2019.
Further reading
- Anshel Pfeffer (2018). Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu, Basic Books.
- Jonathan Freedland, "Trump's Chaver in Jerusalem" (review of Anshel Pfeffer, Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu, Basic Books, 2018), New York Review of Books, vol. LXV, no 13 (16 August 2018), pp. 32–34.
- Adam Shatz, "The sea is the same sea" (review of Anshel Pfeffer, Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu, Hurst, May 2018, ISBN 978-1849049887), London Review of Books, vol. 40, no. 16 (30 August 2018), pp. 24, 26–28.
External links
- Official website
- Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israel Prime Minister's Office
- Benjamin Netanyahu on the Knesset website
- Benjamin Netanyahu at the Encyclopædia Britannica
- Benjamin Netanyahu at the Jewish Virtual Library
- Benjamin Netanyahu on IMDb
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Benjamin Netanyahu collected news and commentary. The Jerusalem Post
- Benjamin Netanyahu collected news and commentary. Haaretz
- Benjamin Netanyahu at Curlie
- Benjamin Netanyahu on Twitter
- Benjamin Netanyahu on Facebook
- Benjamin Netanyahu on Instagram
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
_(cropped).jpg)
| Authority control |
|
|---|