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The Story of Sport in Israel

Benjamin Netanyahu (1949- )

Israel's 9th Prime Minister, 1996-1999; Likud Party Leader

Benjamin Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv in 1949, but grew up in Jerusalem and moved with his family to the United States as a teenager, where his father, hebraicist and historian, Benzion Netanyahu, taught at various universities and edited the Encyc. Judaica. After attending high school in Philadelphia, he returned to Israel and served from 1967 to 1972 in an elite commando unit, which engaged in anti-terrorist activity and special missions. He later studied architecture and business administration at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, and worked as a business consultant.

On 4^th July, 1976, his brother, Commander Yonatan Netanyahu, was killed in Israel's rescue of the hijacked Air France passengers who were being held at Entebbe airport. From 1978-1980, Benjamin Netanyahu headed the Jonathan Institute for Peace and later returned to Israel, to work in business. His appointment in 1982 as Deputy Chief of Mission at Israel's Washington Embassy returned him to the United States, and in 1984 he became Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Organization.

In 1988, he was elected a Member of Knesset for the Likud Party and served as deputy Foreign Minister and special assistant minister in the government, playing a key role at the Madrid Conference of 1991. In 1993, following the defeat of Yitzhak Shamir's Likud government in the previous year's elections, Benjamin Netanyahu decisively defeated three other candidates for Likud Party leadership, remaining leader of the opposition during the Rabin and Peres governments. Following the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin in 1995, Netanyahu was accused of abetting sedition and incitement against the government, but refuted the allegations.

Benjamin Netanyahu introduced American-style election campaigning to Israel and ousted Shimon Peres as Prime Minister in the May 1996 Elections, restoring the Likud to power, with 50.5% of the vote to Peres' 49.5% in the Direct Election for the premiership. He thus became not only the youngest Israeli Prime Minister, but also the first to be elected directly. Netanyahu struggled through his three years in power, partly due to lack of experience and partly due to the new system, which weakened the two largest political parties in favor of smaller, sectoral factions.

During this period, relations with the Palestinians soured. Prime Minister Netanyahu deferred Israel's planned redeployment in Hebron and ignored Yasir Arafat for the first few months, placating the Right, but aggravating the Left. The opening of a tunnel door along the Western Wall into the Muslim Quarter, in Jerusalem's Old City, triggered riots and fighting that left 15 Israelis and over 80 Palestinians dead. Netanyahu, under US pressure, finally met with Arafat, and signed the Hebron Accords: by withdrawing from large parts of Hebron, he placated the Left, but aggravated the Right. Between the spring of 1997 and the fall of 1998, there was no movement on the peace process; eventually, President Clinton pressured PM Netanyahu into meeting Arafat again in the US, where they signed the Wye River Memorandum, calling for Israel to make three land transfers to the PA, in return for security guarantees. Netanyahu went through with the first redeployment, but then demanded reciprocity; the peace process stagnated, until the government fell shortly thereafter.

Netanyahu, who had run a brilliant election publicity campaign in the personal election against Shimon Peres in 1996, was unsuccessful against Ehud Barak and the Labor Alignment in May 1999. His opponent adopted Netanyahu's own practice of hiring spin-doctors, including his own PR team. Although more politically experienced, Netanyahu could not compete with Barak's image as a general and former Chief-of-Staff; he was roundly defeated and resigned his position and Knesset membership on election night, when the results came in.

Benjamin Netanyahu spent the intervening years as a public speaker and engaged in related activities, but from the moment he left office, he planned his eventual comeback. His first opportunity came when the Barak government fell in 2001. Despite the fact that the polls pegged him to defeat Likud leader Ariel Sharon for the party leadership and thus the Prime Ministership, and although a special law was passed to allow candidates who were not MKs to enter the premiership race, Netanyahu refused to do so from outside the Knesset, declaring that he would only run for Prime Minister if he could lead the Likud back to the top.

Ariel Sharon ousted Ehud Barak, but Prime Minister Sharon's National Unity government crumbled, in the fall of 2002, at which point Netanyahu was offered the Foreign Affairs post, previously held by Shimon Peres, but he responded that he would only accept the post if new elections were held. PM Sharon offered the position again, a few days later, when it became clear that he could not set up a stable government; he then dispersed the Knesset and invited Netanyahu to be Minister of Foreign Affairs in a caretaker government pending a General Election, which Netanyahu accepted. Netanyahu lost the pre-election Likud leadership contest against Ariel Sharon in December 2002, but went into the 2003 Election assured of a senior government position.

Benjamin Netanyahu served as Finance Minister in the 16^th Knesset under the Likud Coalition government and later the National Unity government, led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. During this time, he succeeded in creating positive economic growth in Israel through promotion of a liberal economy and free market dynamics, which were encouraged by financial and taxation reform. These improvements created foreign investment and Israel's international financial rating also improved. However, unemployment and poverty continued to grow, including rising poverty among minimum wage earners and those below minimum wage. At the same time, this situation was exacerbated by ongoing, severe economic cutbacks in social benefits, welfare services and education, as well as the health services, so that Israel's social gap widened considerably.

Benjamin Netanyahu continued to be actively involved in issues related to the Likud Party and to Israel's security. His position on Disengagement was that the government should go to the people via a Referendum, although he eventually voted with the government on the Law. However, he essentially belonged to the internal Likud opposition (rebels) and resigned from the government as the final approvals for Disengagement were voted in August 2005.

From this point on, Netanyahu contested Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policies openly, together with his leadership. While he initially lost out to Ariel Sharon over a vote in the Likud Central Committee, this was not the end of the contest: the government nevertheless fell, following the Labor Party's internal leadership election and Amir Peretz's call for its resignation from the government. Prime Minister Sharon soon left the Likud to form a new party; in the outcome, Netanyahu won the leadership against several other candidates ( November 2005), in the run-up to the 2006 Elections.

Benjamin Netanyahu decided not to pull Likud Ministers out of the government immediately, following the hospitalization of Prime Minister Sharon after a major stroke. He did so, however, ahead of the internal Likud primaries, after which he emerged with a new election line-up for the Party. The focus of his election platform has been: Israel's security considerations, the retention of areas considered integral and vital to Israel, and opposition to to unilateral territorial concession. He also opposed the government's decision to allow E. Jerusalem Palestinians to vote within the city boundaries at the January Palestinian Council elections, in which Hamas, a terrorist movement, won a landslide victory.

One of Benjamin Netanyahu's prime themes throughout his public career has been the fight against terrorism. This concern originated with the 1976 Entebbe raid, where Israeli commandos successfully freed the hostages of a hijacked Air France airplane held by Arab terrorists, but in which Netanyahu's older brother, Yonatan, was killed. Netanyahu has repeatedly emphasized the need to fight terror and to build peace upon security, both in his policies and in his books. He identifies his resistance to territoritorial concession with his belief in the prerequisite of strength for a successful peace, than from a "Greater Land of Israel" ideology. His opposition to unilateral concessions in general, and the Disengagement, in particular, is the premise that they signal that "terror pays".

Likud went into opposition again following major electoral losses in 2006, with Netanyahu heading the Opposition. With a shaky Kadima party leading a failing coalition government and the polls showing electoral gains for the Likud, Netanyahu led the party into the 2009 Israel Election.

Benjamin Netanyahu is the author of:
International Terrorism: Challenge and Response (1981); Terrorism: How the West Can Win (1987); A Place Among the Nations (1995); Fighting Terrorism (1995, 1997, 2001); A Durable Peace: Israel and Its Place Among the Nations (2000); The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu (2001).