Thinking About Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu . . . is an Israeli politician who has been serving as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021.He is the chairman of the Likud party. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in the country's history, having served for a total of over 16 years. He is also the first prime minister to have been born in Israel after its establishment.
. . . Netanyahu rose to prominence after being elected as the chairman of Likud in 1993, becoming Leader of the Opposition. In the 1996 election, Netanyahu beat Shimon Peres, becoming the first Israeli prime minister elected directly by popular vote, and its youngest-ever. Netanyahu and Likud were heavily defeated in the 1999 election by Ehud Barak's One Israel alliance; and Netanyahu chose to retire from politics entirely, entering the private sector. Netanyahu later returned to politics, and served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance under Ariel Sharon. During the latter position, he initiated reforms of the Israeli economy that led to significant growth.
. . . After the 2009 election, Netanyahu formed a coalition government with other right-wing parties and was sworn in as prime minister for a second time. He went on to lead Likud to victory in the 2013 and 2015 elections. A period of political deadlock ensued after three consecutive elections in 2019 and 2020 failed to produce a government, which was solved after a coalition rotation agreement was reached between Netanyahu and centrist Blue and White alliance's Benny Gantz. The coalition collapsed in December 2020, before the rotation could take place, and a new election was held in March 2021. . . In June 2021, after Naftali Bennett formed a government with Yair Lapid, Netanyahu was removed from the premiership, becoming opposition leader for the third time, before returning as prime minister again after forming a coalition with right-wing parties after the 2022 election.
Another intermittently successful politician comes to mind, Benjamin Disraeli,
a British statesman, Conservative politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach. Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal Party leader William Ewart Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or "Tory democracy". He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the British Empire and military action to expand it, both of which were popular among British voters. He is the only British Prime Minister to have been born Jewish.
After several unsuccessful attempts, Disraeli entered the House of Commons in 1837. In 1846, Prime Minister Robert Peel split the party over his proposal to repeal the Corn Laws, which involved ending the tariff on imported grain. Disraeli clashed with Peel in the House of Commons, becoming a major figure in the party. When Lord Derby, the party leader, thrice formed governments in the 1850s and 1860s, Disraeli served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons.
Upon Derby's retirement in 1868, Disraeli became prime minister briefly before losing that year's general election. He returned to the Opposition before leading the party to a majority in the 1874 general election. . . . the Liberals defeated Disraeli's Conservatives at the 1880 general election.
It's worth noting, though, that Netanyahu's career as prime minister has been longer than Disraeli's, and Netanyahu is also to some degree a politician whose familiarity with the US has been key to his tenacity in Israel. Back to Wikipedia,
Between 1956 and 1958, and again from 1963 to 1967, his family lived in the United States in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. . . .Netanyahu returned to the United States in late 1972 to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . 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 a bachelor's degree in architecture.
. . . At MIT, Netanyahu studied a double-load while simultaneously taking courses at Harvard University, completing a master's degree in two and a half years, despite taking a break to fight in the Yom Kippur War. . . . In 1976, Netanyahu graduated near the top of his class at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
. . . Netanyahu was headhunted to be an economic consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in Boston, Massachusetts, working at the company between 1976 and 1978. . . . In 1978, Netanyahu returned to Israel.
A protégé of Moshe Arens, who was Israeli Amassador to the US, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington between 1982 and 1984, and between 1984 and 1988, he was in New York as Israeli Ambassador to the UN. He returned to Israel again to build his political career.
Netanyahu was the Likud's candidate for prime minister in the 1996 Israeli legislative election which took place on 29 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, Netanyahu won the 1996 election[.]
But it's increasingly plain that Netanyahu isn't just a US-style politician in Israel; he has to negotiate the US political environment as well. For instance, according to the Times of Israel, as of late 2016,
In less than 45 days, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be able to finally rest assured that he won what might have been the riskiest political poker match of his career.
On January 20 — Inauguration Day — President Barack Obama will exit the world stage, and with him the specter of vindictive action against the Israeli government. When Donald Trump ascends to the presidency, Netanyahu will no longer have to worry about a backlash from Washington for vociferously opposing the Iran nuclear deal or for expanding Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
. . . If this assessment is correct and the outgoing administration does not take any steps on the Palestinian front, Netanyahu can congratulate himself for having a played a very risky hand for years but eventually coming out on top.
Biden's current reversal on sending military aid to Israel -- only a short time after getting the House to pass that same aid -- comes in the context of long-standing enmity between both the Obama and Biden administrations and Netanyahu, something Netanyahu has been able to negotiate with some skill over a period of many years. And as of the past week, things are continuing to work in Netanyahu's favor:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s domestic support is on the rise as Israel’s war against Hamas advances, according to poll numbers released on Thursday.
. . . In a matchup for prime minister between Netanyahu and his longtime rival, Benny Gantz, Netanyahu is the preferred candidate, securing 46 percent of the total sample’s support compared to Gantz’s 33 percent.
. . . On Thursday, the Israeli premier again affirmed Israel’s readiness to confront Hamas alone if necessary, invoking the unity and determination from the Jewish State’s war of independence.
“Today, we are much stronger. We are determined, and we are united in order to defeat our enemies and those who want to destroy us,” the prime minister said, adding that “If we need to stand alone, we will.”
It's plain tnat Netanyahu is playing US politics in the current election cycle just as much as he's playing Israeli politics. He's gambling again, and I suspect the risks are going to pay off again.