“Benjamin Netanyaou will never hang up his jacket on his own. He will do everything possible to form a coalition, even the craziest things. He thinks he has received a mission from God to save the country”. These words are those of Aviv Bushinsky, former spokesman and connoisseur of Likud, the party of the former Israeli prime minister.
Not false, the most lasting Prime Minister in the history of Israel considers that saving his country, of which he wants to take the reins again this November 1 after the legislative elections, is his life’s mission. Adored or abhorred, Benjamin Netanyahu is unanimous on one point: his tireless energy in the service of an intact will to govern. The 73-year-old man, who is campaigning for his fifth legislative election in less than four years, has innovated this year, traveling the country through the “Bibimobile”, a fully glazed and ultra-secure truck freely inspired by the Pope’s vehicle.
“Bibi” and its unshakeable pool of supporters
For the first time since 2009, Netanyahu is not running as incumbent prime minister, having been dethroned in June 2021 by a ragtag coalition. Despite his indictment for corruption in a series of cases (allegations which he denies, the one everyone nicknamed “Bibi” can count on an unwavering pool of supporters.
But if the Likud does worse than predicted by the polls (about 33 seats, the first force in parliament), then its electoral base could finally crack, Bushinsky still believes. And to add: “There is no doubt that some Likud officials will ask him to step down. There will be defections within the party. »
Hoarse voice and unremovable silver hair, Benjamin Netanyahu, father of three, is deeply marked by the heritage of the Israeli right. Born in Tel Aviv on October 21, 1949, he got this strong ideological background from his father Benzion, ex-assistant of Zeev Jabotinsky, leader of the so-called “revisionist” Zionist tendency, favorable to “Greater Israel”.
A vision of Israel as a “Jewish state”
In contrast to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process of the 1990s, which he helped to bury, Netanyahu advocates a vision of Israel as a “Jewish state” with borders extending to Jordan, from where his statements in favor of the annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank and of measures promoting a settlement boom.
In his last decade in power, settlements in the West Bank have exceeded 475,000 – a 50 percent increase – alongside 2.9 million Palestinians, an increased presence that threatens statehood viable Palestinian according to the UN.
At the turn of the 1970s, the young Netanyahu did his military service in an elite commando. But it is especially his older brother, Yoni, who stands out in the ranks of the army. In 1976, Yoni, commander of the unit in charge of freeing the hostages of a Tel-Aviv/Paris flight in Uganda, was killed during the Israeli assault. “I thought my life was over”, writes in his autobiography published this month Benjamin Netanyahu, who will make the “fight against terrorism”, which he often associates with Palestinians or Iranians, one of the common threads in his career.
His admirers also see in him the incarnation of the new “King of Israel” for his strong defense of the country against Iran and its nuclear program, perceived as the new “Amalek”, the mortal enemy Hebrews in the Bible.
Soldier, diplomat, prime minister
If he maintains harsh remarks towards the Palestinian leadership, he concluded normalization agreements in 2020 with Arab countries (Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco) under the aegis of Washington. A born speaker, he is also a career diplomat, posted in the United States, the country where he studied, then ambassador to the UN in the 1980s.
In 1996, at age 46, he triumphed over Dean Shimon Peres and became the youngest Prime Minister in the history of Israel. He will remain in power for three years. He took a political break and then ended up returning to this passion by taking the head of Likud, until becoming Prime Minister again in 2009 until 2021.
“Soldier, I fought to defend Israel on the battlefield. As a diplomat, I have fended off attacks on its legitimacy in international forums. Minister of Finance and Prime Minister, I sought to strengthen his economic and political power among the nations,” Netanyahu further writes in his biography. And to conclude that he “helped secure the future of [son] old people”.