Benjamin Netanyahu
(1949 - )
Benjamin Netanyahu - soldier, diplomat and the ninth Prime Minister of the State of Israel - was born in Tel Aviv in 1949 and grew up in Jerusalem. He spent his adolescent years in the United States, where his father - a noted historian - taught Jewish history.
Returning to Israel in 1967 to fulfill his military obligations, Netanyahu volunteered for an elite commando unit of the IDF and participated in a number of daring operations, including the release of hostages from a hijacked Sabena Airlines aircraft at Ben-Gurion Airport, an operation in which he was wounded. He was discharged from the IDF after six years with the rank of captain. Netanyahu then studied at MIT in Boston and received a B.Sc. in architecture and an M.Sc. in Management Studies. He also studied political science at MIT and Harvard University. In 1976 he was employed by the Boston Consulting Group, an international business consulting firm, and later joined the management of Rim Industries in Jerusalem.
Much affected by the death of his eldest brother Yoni - who had fallen while commanding the 1976 Entebbe rescue operation to free the passengers of an Air France airliner held hostage in Uganda - Benjamin Netanyahu initiated and organized two international conferences on ways to combat international terrorism, in 1979 in Jerusalem and in 1984 in Washington. These forums attracted key political figures and opinion-makers in the international community.
In 1982 Netanyahu joined Israel's diplomatic mission in the United States - serving for two years as Deputy Chief of Mission under then-ambassador Moshe Arens. He was also a member of the first delegation to the talks on strategic cooperation between Israel and the United States. In 1984, Netanyahu was appointed Israel's ambassador to the United Nations and held this position for four years. An articulate speaker, forceful debater, and media-oriented diplomat, he played a key role in efforts to enhance Israel's image and improve understanding of the country's security needs among the "movers and shakers" in American public life.
Soon after returning to Israel in 1988, Benjamin Netanyahu entered the political arena and was elected a Member of Knesset by the Likud party - a political movement with which his family had been identified ideologically for two generations - and was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He served in this position for four years, marked by the intifada; the 1991 Gulf War; and the Madrid Peace Conference, which initiated direct talks between Israel and her neighbors. Netanyahu's talents, particularly in dealing with the media, again contributed greatly to Israel's standing abroad.
In 1993, Netanyahu was elected Chairman of the Likud Party and its candidate for Prime Minister. He led the political opposition in the period prior to and following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin - a time characterized by volatile public debate on basic issues, sparked by controversy over ramifications of the Oslo agreements and escalating Palestinian terrorism.
In 1996, in the first direct elections of an Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu defeated the incumbent Labor candidate Shimon Peres, and became the ninth Prime Minister of the State of Israel, serving until 1999.
Previous Israeli Prime Ministers were older, and their spouses remained largely in the background. But Netanyahu - the youngest Prime Minister in Israel's history - has chosen to adopt an American style of leadership, with his family a part of the Prime Minister's high public profile.
In his first year of office, Netanyahu has concentrated on two burning issues - healing the economy and taking a more resolute stand in the face of Palestinian failures to comply with the terms of agreements signed between them and Israel. Measures were introduced to restrain inflationary trends, along with concrete steps to reduce the chronic budget deficit. Based on a new policy designed to restructure the economy, first steps were taken - not without opposition - towards privatization of government-controlled companies and utilities.
Netanyahu's policy vis-a-vis the peace process was different from that of his predecessors. He honored the terms of the Hebron agreement - for the most part hammered out by the previous administration - but has adopted a far less conciliatory attitude towards the Palestinians, refusing to overlook their failure to live up to their commitments to abolish the Palestinian Covenant and combat terrorism. In keeping with a long-standing belief that one must not acquiesce to terrorism - even indirectly - Benjamin Netanyahu redefined Israel's peace equation upon becoming Prime Minister: He rejected the terminology categorizing Israelis murdered by Palestinian terrorists as "victims of peace" and steadfastly refused to ignore the Palestinian Authority's culpability. Demanding reciprocity, Netanyahu stipulated that Palestinian gains, such as redeployment of Israeli forces and expansion of autonomy, must be linked to genuine Palestinian efforts towards peace.
David Ben-Gurion
Moshe Sharett
Levi Eshkol
Golda Meir
Menachem Begin
Yitzhak Shamir
Yitzchak Rabin
Shimon Peres
Benjamin Netanyahu
Ehud Barak
Ariel Sharon
From the Encyclopaedia Judaica CD-ROM Edition
(c) Judaica Multimedia (Israel) Ltd. and Keter Publishing House. All Rights Reserved.
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