Benjamin Netanyahu is the ninth and current Prime Minister of Israel since 2009. He is also a member of the Knesset and the chairman of Likud. He is the first Israeli Prime Minister born in Israel after the Israeli Declaration of the States.
Throughout his life, Benjamin has been a very active member of various diplomatic operations. After the six-day war in 1967, he joined the Israel Defense Forces and was the team leader of the Sayeret Matkal. He contributed his services to many missions, such as Operation Inferno in 1968.
He was elected Prime Minister of Israel four times and he is the only Prime Minister that was elected three times in a row. Inn addition, he is the only Prime Minister of Israel to visit Australia.
Here are more details about his:
Early Life and CareerBenjamin Netanyahu is 69 years old. He was born on October 21, 1949, in Tel Aviv, Israel, but grew up in Jerusalem. His mother, Tzila Segal was born in Jerusalem, on August 28, 1912, and died on January 31, 2000. His father, Benzion Netanyahu, was born in Warsaw in 1910 and died in 2012.
- Education
- He attended Henrietta Zsold Elementary School in Jerusalem. His sixth evaluation revealed that he was courteous, polite, responsible and punctual.
- He attended and graduated from Cheltenham High School in the United States in 1967.
- After graduating from High School in 1967, he returned to Israel to sign up in the Israel Defense Force.
- In February 1975 he completed a Bachelor of Science Degree in Architecture. The following year, 1976, he also completed a master’s degree at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
- In 1976 he graduated at almost top of the class from MIT.
- Career
- After his graduation from MIT Sloan School of Management, Benjamin Netanyahu worked as an Economic Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in Chicago from 1976 – 1978.
- He returned to Israel in 1978. While in Israel he operated a non-governmental organization that was focused on terrorism.
- From 1980-1982, he worked at Rim Industries in Jerusalem as Marketing Director.
- From 1982-1984, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.
- From 1984 -1988, he was the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations.
- 1988 – 1999
- In 1988, Benjamin Netanyahu was elected by the right-wing Likud Party to become a member of Israel’s parliament known as Knesset, where he served as deputy minister of foreign affairs.
- In 1993, he became chairman of Likud party and was elected as a candidate to run for the office of Prime Minister.
- In the 1996 election, he defeated the labor candidate, Shimon Peres. Although Benjamin won the office of Prime Minister for the Likud party, it was labor that won the Knesset elections.
- Benjamin served as Prime Minister of Israel from 1996 – 1999.
- During his first term as Prime Minister, the number of terrorist attacks against Israel decreased. He also signed the Hebron and Wye Accords, advancing the peace process with the Palestinians.
- He also expanded government privatization, liberalized currency regulations, and reduced deficit.
- The leader of the Opposition
- He became the leader of the opposition when he was defeated in the 1999 election. He also moved from the political arena to the private sector.
- Benjamin Netanyahu competed for the Likud leadership, after Ariel Sharon’s departure from office.
- In March 2006, the Likud party came third behind Kadima and labor, so Benjamin served as the leader of the opposition.
- Re-election
- His victory in the 2013 elections made him the second person to hold the post of Prime Minster for a third term. Then again, in March 2015, he became the third person to be elected for a fourth term as Prime Minister.
- 2015-Present
- In March 2016, ultra-orthodox members said that they will leave the coalition if Netanyahu’s government proceed with its proposal to create a non-orthodox prayer space at the Western Wall.
- On February 2017, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, visited Australia on official business.
- In 2017, Benjamin Netanyahu was a suspect in two investigations of “fraud, breach of trust and bribe.” It was alleged that he accepted gifts from two prominent businessmen and bribed a newspaper to do the coverage of his tenure.
- On February 13, 2018, a statement was released by the Israeli police that they have enough evidence to indict Netanyahu of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. However, Netanyahu dismissed the allegations saying that they were baseless.
- On November 28, 2018, Israeli police revealed in a statement that they had sufficient evidence to charge the Prime Minister for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
Benjamin Netanyahu is from a well-accomplished family. His grandparents were born in the Russian Empire and his Mother’s parents were immigrants of Minneapolis, in the USA. His father was a professor of Jewish History.
Benjamin Netanyahu wife is Sara Netanyahu nee Ben-Artzi. They were married in 1991 and have two sons, Yair, a former soldier, and Avner, a national Bible champion. Sara is the daughter of the late Chava and Shmuel Ben-Artzi. She is an education and career psychologist by profession.
Sources