The assassination of the prime minister who helped spearhead those efforts, Yitzhak Rabin, led to an early election a year later that saw Netanyahu and his opposing ideology come to power. His lasting impact has been to move the country away from a position where the end of military rule over millions of Palestinians felt like a possibility — or, as some Netanyahu rivals argued, a necessity if Israel was to thrive.
Almost three decades later, Netanyahu has maintained his ideology, claiming it finally smashed the assumption that the Jewish state would remain isolated in the region unless it loosened its hold over the Palestinians. After signing a historic agreement with the United Arab Emirates to establish full diplomatic ties last August — the first of several such deals — Netanyahu repeated his mantra.
As a testament to the robustness of that message, the Israeli peace camp of the s that he so scorned has been moved to the sidelines of domestic politics. He has intermittently lost power since he was first elected, including to the former Labor leader Ehud Barak and then a member of his own Likud party, Ariel Sharon, but always managed to claw it back.
Seemingly an affable diplomat when speaking English, Netanyahu has played the dog-whistle alarmist in Hebrew to rally his nationalist base, infamously exploiting anti-Arab fears to win the ballot. And in the past few years, in a bid to save his political career, he made election pacts with far-right Jewish extremists.
His rival and former allies accuse him of divisiveness and chipping away at Israeli institutions, including the judiciary, to maintain his position.
Netanyahu has fought three wars with Hamas militants in Gaza, the latest of which ended last month. Although seen domestically as reserved when it comes to combat, Netanyahu oversaw the war when Israeli attacks killed more than 2, Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the UN. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee had a press release up and ready to go just four and a half hours after the parties had signed the coalition agreement on Wednesday night, congratulating "Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett for assembling a broad and diverse coalition.
It may sound a bit churlish of them: after all, Netanyahu has been the star-turn at their annual policy conferences for nearly four decades now, since his days as a dashing diplomat in Washington and New York, reliably drawing a rapturous audience of thousands to his well-choreographed, hour-long performances. But they would be quite happy if Netanyahu never comes to another of their conferences ever again. Its grandees see themselves as the guardians of bipartisan support for Israel.
But Netanyahu, who was once seen as their greatest media asset, has been sabotaging them for nearly a decade now, going back to his overt support for Mitt Romney in the U. They were so happy to announce in the press release that the new coalition spans was not only "broad and diverse" but also spanned "the political spectrum of Zionist and Arab parties. Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List and, if the government comes into being, the first Israeli Arab party to become a member of an Israeli coalition not counting the tiny Arab "satellite parties" back in the s and s, who were basically just front-groups for recruiting Arab voters for the ruling Mapai is an interesting prize for hasbara outfits.
And something of an embarrassment for progressive Jewish groups. Since becoming leader of Hadash and entering the Knesset in , Ayman Odeh became the firm darling of progressive Jews. Netanyahu ousted from power as rival Bennett set to become Israel's new prime minister. Without question, Netanyahu has left an indelible mark on Israel, changing and molding its path. And though he may be leaving the highest office for now, his influence is far from over.
Certainly Israel is economically much stronger and militarily In other ways he leaves Israel much weaker in particular in the internal divisions. Read More. Deepening divisions. Despite his years of dominance, Netanyahu rarely garnered a huge amount of Israeli popular support.
Photos: Benjamin Netanyahu's life in pictures. Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem in October Hide Caption. A year-old Netanyahu, right, sits with a friend at the entrance to his family home in Jerusalem in Netanyahu spent his teenage years in the United States, going to high school in Philadelphia.
Netanyahu, right, poses with a friend in the Judean Desert in Netanyahu serves in the Sayeret Matkal, an elite commando unit of the Israeli army, in He spent five years in the unit. Netanyahu shakes hands with Israeli President Zalman Shazar during a ceremony honoring Sayeret Matkal soldiers who freed hostages in a hijacking earlier that year.
Netanyahu and his first wife, Miriam, in Netanyahu and his daughter, Noa, in Netanyahu has three children in all. Netanyahu's brother, Yonatan, was killed leading Operation Entebbe in Affected by his brother's death, Netanyahu organized two international conferences on ways to combat terrorism — one in and another in From to , Netanyahu was Israel's ambassador to the United Nations.
Netanyahu, as Israel's deputy foreign minister, goes through some papers as Government Secretary Elyakim Rubinstein recites morning prayers during a flight to Washington, DC, in Shamir speaks with Netanyahu at a Middle East peace conference in Madrid in Netanyahu celebrates after being elected chairman of the right-wing Likud party on March 21, Netanyahu and former foreign minister David Levy sit in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, during the vote for a new Israeli President on March 24, It was Netanyahu's first visit to Jordan.
Netanyahu shakes hands with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres before taking the office himself in June At 46 years old, Netanyahu was the youngest-ever Israeli prime minister. Netanyahu meets with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the first time in September They met at an Israeli army base at the Erez Checkpoint in Gaza. Netanyahu spends the day on the beach with his wife, Sara, and son Avner in Caesarea, Israel, in August Douglas was honored for his inspirational commitment to Israel and the Jewish people and in recognition of his new book "Climbing the Mountain.
Netanyahu looks through binoculars as he and the Israeli Cabinet tour the West Bank in December The outgoing Prime Minister announced that he was quitting the Knesset and stepping down as party leader 10 days after being defeated in elections.
Netanyahu testifies before a US House committee on September 20, The committee was conducting hearings on terrorism following the September 11 attacks. Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are seen at a polling station in Jerusalem in August He was once again elected as head of the Likud party.
Netanyahu shakes hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres in February after winning backing from the Israeli parliament to become prime minister again. A close election between Netanyahu and rival Tzipi Livni had left the results unclear until the parliament's decision. Obama meets with Netanyahu at the White House in September
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