Benjamin Netanyahu was the 9th Prime Minister of Israel and is current chair of the Likud Party. Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv in 1949, one year after Israeli independence.
Netanyahu, often called “Bibi” by the Israeli public (and this blog), moved to the United States with his family when he was 14. He entered politics in 1982 when he was appointed Deputy Chief of Missionary at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. He became Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in 1984 and retained the post until 1988.
Bibi was first elected to the Knesset in 1988, and he held his post until Yitzhak Shamir retired in 1992. At that time, the Likud party held its first primary and Bibi became the party chair.
In 1996 Bibi was elected Prime Minister in the first ever direct election of a Prime Minister in Israel’s history. He was the youngest person to hold the position of Prime Minister. As Prime Minister, Bibi held to the positions of not negotiating on the Golan and not negotiating on the status of Jerusalem. In 1999, Netanyahu was defeated by Ehud Barak and took a hiatus from politics.
Since 2000, Bibi has again raised in the Likud ranks. Under Ariel Sharon, Bibi was Israel’s Finance Minister. When Sharon left Likud to form the Kadima party, Netanyahu regained his position at Likud party chair.
Bibi is a hopeful Prime Minister candidate in the upcoming Israeli election scheduled for this month.
The Netanyahu family is also known for Benjamin’s older brother, Yonatan Netanyahu, who was killed in the rescue of innocent Israelis in the Entebbe Operation in 1976.
This post is in a series called Prime Ministers in History. The series covers the lives and influence of those who have held Israel’s highest office.
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