Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest~serving PM

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Today's episode is sponsored by Smart Travel, a podcast from NerdWallet. You know that one friend who always finds the best travel deals, picks the right credit cards, and somehow ends up in first class for the price of coach. Smart Travel is like that friend, but in podcast form. NerdWallet's travel journalist sought out what's worth paying for, from lounge access to travel advisors to hotel loyalty programs. Make your travel dollars work harder. Follow Smart Travel on your favorite podcast app. Put together your summer wardrobe with Abercromi. First step, new down. Abercromi added new linen blend jeans to their lineup. They're really lightweight and a comfortable cotton linen blend you need for sewing. Their archive shirt is your next must-have. Cut it a 90s inspired oversized fit that gives a put together but relaxed look. Pair it with their classic poplin short and you have your new go-to outfit for the season. Set your wardrobe up with Abercromi this summer. Shop in the app,

1:01online, and in stores. Hello, I'm Mark Coles and for the documentary from the BBC World Service, we're profiling the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Who's meant to be what President Trump has called a little excursion. A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran. They have no navy, they have no air force, it's all been blown up, and they have no leadership. Talk gun. But three weeks in and there's still no end in sight to the joint U.S. Israeli war with Iran, the conflict spreading across the Middle East region. Oil and gas prices spiraling, confusion about what the end game is. Some believe America wouldn't be bombing Iran if it wasn't for this man. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

2:06History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world's most dangerous regime, the world's most dangerous weapons. The longest serving Prime Minister in the history of Israel, he's dominated his country's politics for a generation. This is the war he's always sought, the culmination of a lifetime obsession with the threat from Iran. Iran is never given up its quest for nuclear weapons. Iran will be capable of producing nuclear bombs within three to five years. Time is running out. He's tried and failed to get U.S. Democrat administrations involved militarily in the past. With Trump, it seems he's found a willing partner to wage war against the Iranian regime. Netanyahu has amazing access directly to the President, and I'm sure that makes a difference because it wouldn't have happened under the Biden administration. Over a political career stretching four decades, Netanyahu has polarized opinion.

3:09His supporters argue he's the man best place to protect Israel from its enemies. His critics say he's prioritized his own political survival over what's best for his country and the region. I don't think it's an overstretched to say at all that he's managed to reshape Israel in his image in the last 20-30 years that he's been in politics. This is a man with exceptional capabilities. And deep character flaws. The world benefits from the former and suffers from the latter. So who is Benjamin Netanyahu and what shaped him? Benjamin Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv in 1949, the year after the state of Israel was founded. He's the first Prime Minister in Israeli history to actually have been born in the state of Israel. Bethan McKernan knows his story well. She was Jerusalem correspondent for the Guardian newspaper for four years. He grew up in a secular but very socially conservative environment with very

4:15strong ideas about Zionism and about what the future of the, at that point, much younger Jewish state should be. The Israeli-American journalist and political analyst, Gil Hoffman. You know, Israel was created under the shadow of the Holocaust and preventing another Holocaust was always what he was told his mission needed to be. The second of three sons, his dad Benzian, was a prominent historian and part of the revisionist Zionist movement, which advocated for a Jewish state on both sides of the River Jordan. Benjamin Netanyahu biographer Anshul Fefer. Well, Netanyahu was brought up by his parents who had quite staunch Jewish nationalist views. They were both involved in the revisionist Zionist movement, particularly Benzian Netanyahu, wrote many essays about revisionist Zionism and was for a time one of its main organizers also in North America. Bethan McKernan again. Being around his father's intellectual friends on the

5:19right wing of Israeli intellectual society, I think, was really formative for him and his brothers. Although Netanyahu or BB as his parents called him was born in Israel, he spent a fair chunk of his adolescence in the US. He was born in Tel Aviv but then grew up. I spent most of his childhood between Jerusalem and Philadelphia, which is where his father was teaching history. So not the usual kind of trajectory for a future national leader, I guess, to spend so much of your formative years in a different country. Marie Bintner was his English teacher at high school in Philadelphia. Talking to us back in 2009, she remembered the young Netanyahu made quite an impression. I can tell you that he was a challenge, very intelligent. He wrote beautifully and he took a firm stand on his feelings even if they ran counter to the class and he supported it almost lawyer-like with fact, with reference to text, etc. He was just outstanding, deep, deep voice,

6:29slight Israeli accent, tremendously in love with Israel. Israel was first and foremost in his mind. I thought he was very handsome. Made an impression on others too. Most of the girls were gagga over him but he was critical of the somewhat typical honors English student. He thought they were spoiled. He thought they were not given to hard work if they should be. He would not be moved on that. His time spent in the US meant Netanyahu grew up by lingual and well-versed in American ways and customs, something that would stand him in great stead later in his career. Economist Israel Correspondent and Biographer Anshel Feffer. Well, it was important suddenly in the sense that he admired a lot of the American culture and many of the mannerisms of middle class America of that generation. But he was very clear at the age of 18 even though he had been accepted to Yale. He made it

7:38quite clear that he would be returning to Israel. In 1967, at the height of what in the West was the summer of love, Netanyahu moved back to Israel to do military service. He trained as a combat soldier, then joined Israel's equivalent of the British SAS, just like his elder brother, done three years earlier, Jonathan or Yoni, something of a role model for the younger Benjamin. They were extremely close. They had like many kids whose families immigrated spend years outside, away from the country where they were born for him. And Yoni, even though there were about three years between them, there was a very close relationship and there are hundreds of letters that they sent each other in the 60s and 70s. In the military, Netanyahu earned a reputation for being calm and a pressure. During his time in Syed up Metcalfe, which is the most elite Special Forces unit in the idea of where he was captained. So those leadership skills, I guess, were apparent quite early on. Military career over, he returned to America to study, but

8:46both in 1967 in the 6th day war and in 1973 in the Yonkippur war, you know, he stopped what he was doing and he flew straight back to Israel to fight and to defend his homeland and his family. He took part in a number of high-risk missions, hostage rescues, covert operations behind enemy lines, not for the faint-hearted. He later told the US public policy think tank the Hoover institution. I served in an elite unit and had several brushes with death and nearly drowned in a firefight in the middle of the Suez Canal. I was wounded while storming the hijacked airplane. Almost froze to death. Almost froze to death in Syria, in Syrian Golan Heights. I was bitten by a scorpion and lived to talk about it. Politicians in Israel, a lot of them have got illustrious military careers, but I don't think that that downplays at all, that he has faced extremely

9:47dangerous situations and he's risked his life and he has been very brave in the service of his country. Yonkippur war over, Benjamin returned to America once again to focus on a planned lucrative career in business management, leaving Big Brother Yonni in the military back in Israel. Then in June 1976 tragedy. Good evening and Air France jet was hijacked by Palestinian gorillas today. On board, nine Americans, some 80 Israelis and 157 other passengers. The hijackers flew the plane to Anteba in Uganda and set a deadline for the release of 53 Palestinian prisoners held in several countries, after which they would start killing Jewish hostages. Israel's elite forces unit launching an audacious rescue mission. This is a broadcasting from Jerusalem. All the hostages in Uganda have been rescued by Israeli forces. The Israeli commanders were dressed in civilian clothes. In a short battle, the Israeli territory

10:50took us to control of the Antebair terminal, the list of hostages and the Air France crew, loaded them above their enclaves and hid it out again. The terrorists whose number had been put as high as ten were wiped out. Only one Israeli soldier died in the operation, the unit's commander Yonni Netanyahu, Benjamin's older brother. Gil Hoffman, former chief political correspondent for the Jerusalem Post. That thrust Netanyahu into the role as the leader of the family and the future leader of the Israeli right. It was supposed to be his brother. He was supposed to be someone who would make a lot of money living in America and now he had to lead. Andrew Feffer again. The Yonni's death had a huge impact on Netanyahu. He was certainly shattered by losing probably the person he was closest to and it also put him in a very young age in the public line of light because Yonni had been killed in what was one of the most celebrated of Israeli

11:51military special operations and since he was dead and most of the other officers were members of special forces, they couldn't talk and all of a sudden, Benjamin Netanyahu hadn't been in the operation but had been before that an officer in the same unit almost became a spokesperson, both for the dead Yonni and for this event which had in capture the imagination of a lot of people in the West and has been seen ever since. It's sort of a prime example of how a special operation unit can both rescue hostages and fight terror organizations. So BB became a very indemand speaker in America and in Israel and that was certainly a boost for what would become a few years later his public career. After his brother's death, Benjamin Netanyahu founded an anti-terrorism institute in Yonni's memory. He organized conferences and edited a book on combating international terrorism then he went into diplomacy. He was appointed a senior diplomat

12:54in the United States at the age of 30 without any civil service or diplomatic experience and that was also the stepping stone to what would become his meteoric political career. In the 1980s he served as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. It was very effective. A great communicator says political consultant George Burnbaum who would later go on to be Netanyahu's chief of staff. Yeah, I mean he was one of these people that when you walk into a room he's a larger than life individual. He owns the room and not because he's boisterous or gregarious it's just his presence and I'd met many politicians before and he just had a presence and a charisma that was unbelievably strong and completely natural. Though perhaps not that natural to begin with says Bethan McCurden. Apparently when he was Israel's ambassador to the UN in the mid 80s so very beginning of his career in public life. He had a video camera and he would you know sit on the

13:57bird and he put the video camera on and he would just practice giving speeches until he got good at it. I think it's less in-born talent and more just drive and dedication and efforts you know he knew what he had to do and he set out to do it. The English speaking Netanyahu became a familiar face a regular pundit on American TV news programs defending Israel warning of threats particularly from terrorism. At the end of the 80s he turned his attention to domestic politics was elected to the Knesset Israel's parliament and rose rapidly. By 1993 he had become leader of the main right wing Likud party Gil Hoffman again. Well he came back from his posting as Israel's very high profile ambassador to the United Nations as this international star who knew how to talk to the world and that was seen as something that nobody else could do like him and so because that was so respected that helped him rise through the ranks of the Likud very quickly pass up the other

15:00Likud princes the sons of the founders of the party he brought a very American mentality. As Likud leader Netanyahu took an unapologetically hard line on security including when it came to the clerics leading Iran. You love it is senior policy advisor of the European council on foreign relations focusing on Israel and Palestine. Going back to at least 1992 Netanyahu has been warning about the dangers that Iran poses in his view to Israel and to the world and in 1992 he's on record and calling for a US-led war against Iran to topple the regime and this is a message that he's been repeating throughout his political career and in some people would describe Netanyahu is quite messianic in that regard like always warning of the dangers of Iran. Netanyahu's concerns are to certain extent you know Israeli concerns and are rooted in I think a legitimate Israeli concerns first and foremost it is of course that the Islamic Republic for Iran since the 1970 revolution

16:02has positioned itself as an anti-Israel country. This is Netanyahu speaking to America's CBS news back in 1995. Iran will be capable of producing nuclear bombs within three to five years. It didn't happen but it didn't deter him either since the Guardian's Bethan McKernan. He really does think and feel that Israel faces existential crises on its doorstep from Iran, from you know various quarters and his brother died defending that so you know that's a very sincere guiding principle in his life I think and that did have a significant impact on how Netanyahu saw politics and what politics was for you know they do the defense of the people. Put together your summer wardrobe with Abercromi first step new down. Abercromi added new linen blend jeans to their lineup they're really lightweight and a comfortable cotton linen blend

17:06you need for summer. Their archive shirt is your next must-have. Cut it a 90s inspired oversized fit that gives a put together but relaxed look. Pair it with their classic poplin short and you have your new go-to outfit for the season. Set your wardrobe up with Abercromi this summer. Shop in the app, online and in stores. At the BBC we go further so you see clearer. With a subscription to BBC.com and the BBC app you get unlimited articles and videos. Add free podcasts. The BBC News Channel streaming live 24-7 plus hundreds of acclaimed documentaries. From less than a dollar a week for your first year read watch and listen to trusted independent journalism and storytelling. It all starts with a subscription to BBC.com and the BBC app. Find out more at BBC.com slash unlimited. This is the documentary from the BBC World Service. On Mark Cole's profiling the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu was a fierce critic of peace negotiations with the

18:12Palestinians too. The Prime Minister at the time Yitzhak Rubin and his government tried to open a peace process with Palestinians from the West Bank in Gaza. The plan, broken by the US, to gradually seed power to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, a framework for a two-state solution. Netanyahu opposed that. Jonathan Reinhold, professor of international politics at Israel's Baralan University. He felt that Israel had to retain sovereignty in particular in security terms for all of that land and so he tried to erode the Oslo Accords. Netanyahu built his political profile rallying support against the process. Then in 1995 events in Israel made headlines around the world. The Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rubin, the architect of the Middle East peace process, has been assassinated. He was shot tonight as he left a peace rally in Tel Aviv and died shortly afterwards in hospital. Yitzhak Rubin's murder led to early elections opening the door for Netanyahu.

19:17When it came to campaigning, his approach was very media-savvy, markedly different to that of some of his rivals, recalls former Jerusalem post-chief political correspondent Gil Hoffman. He brought political strategists with him instead of what all the other candidates did and staying outside all day where the voting was happening and shaking hands all day and sweating. He would stay in an air-conditioned truck van and he would go out every hour for 10 minutes and in between he would shower and change his shirt. So he would always look vibrant when he came and met with people. He increased his allure. Netanyahu pulling off a surprise victory, winning by less than 1% of the total number of votes cast. Age 46, BB becoming Israel's youngest ever Prime Minister. He had a troubled first term, not least managing a peace process he had campaigned against but inherited from the previous

20:20Labour government. But since Jonathan Reinhold went in power, Netanyahu reluctantly went along with it. He would say, I'm not saying I'm totally ideologically opposed, but I'm going to behave in a way as to make it difficult to proceed. Now he had a great partner in that called Yassir Arifat. He also made it extremely hard to proceed because he was never really committed to the process and to peace with Israel. Netanyahu blamed the Palestinian leadership, saying they weren't meeting their security obligations. Elsewhere he became mired in a series of scandals was criticised by nationalists for giving up control of territory in parts of the West Bank under extreme pressure from President Clinton. By 1999 he was out. His fragile coalition fooling apart. The electorate taking a chance on Labour's a Houd-Barakh instead. Netanyahu temporarily left politics, but within a couple of years he was back. Gil Hoffman. He could retire from politics and gone off and made endless amounts of money, but he came back because he believes

21:28that he and only he can save Israel in the world. He was given cabinet roles in aerial Shoron's government, though in 2005 resigned as finance minister in protest at Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, a move which he argued would create a base for Islamic terror. It didn't seem to damage his prospects, mind, within four years Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister again. Ansis Jonathan Reinhold seemed to have learned from the mistakes of his first term, becoming more disciplined and strategic, aware of the need to make alliances. If we look at Netanyahu when he becomes Prime Minister again, beginning 2009, from then until 2015 he is always Prime Minister of a government with parties to the left and parties to the right and he is in the middle and he is navigating a policy which is I will engage in a peace process because it's important to our relationship with the United States and I have to demonstrate to the United States that if the Palestinians tickle the boxes I'm willing

22:32to make the compromises. Therefore you see him saying yeah I'm willing to accept a two-state solution when Obama pressures him. These are not things he likes to do but he's willing to do them because as a statesman it protects Israel's security and its overall strategic position. So for that period from about 2009 till the war in 2014 in the collapse of the peace process under Obama Netanyahu is very pragmatic, very strategic in his thinking. He understands that he has to be seen to be playing along and he has to sometimes make concessions and things they doesn't want to do and he does that. On Iran if anything Netanyahu upped the rhetoric. This is a bomb, this is a fuse. In an address to the UN General Assembly in 2012 holding up a cartoon picture of a bomb with a fuse sticking out of the top of it, he didn't mince his words either. By next spring at most by next summer

23:36they will be finished the medium enrichment and move on to the final stage. From there it's only a few months possibly a few weeks before they get enough enriched uranium for the first bomb. Three years later Alarm that President Obama might be close to securing a nuclear deal with Iran Netanyahu addressed the U.S. Congress to warn against it. The greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons to defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle but lose the war. We can't let that happen. But away from the international stage back home in Israel Netanyahu was facing mounting problems there were protests against some of his economic policies and increasing number of clashes between the Israeli army and Palestinian militants for major conflicts in the space of just over a decade. He was dogged too by a number of corruption investigations which had a destabilizing

24:41effect on his ability to form effective coalitions, something that's essential in Israeli politics. What changes in 2015 is that they begin to be court cases against him in Israel. The problem for him was that the parties to the left of him, the center parties and the left party said look once you are indicted we cannot serve in a government with you yeah investigation all right we'll stretch it a bit but but indictment that's a red line. In 2019 he was indicted and sent for trial for alleged bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges he denies the guardians Bethan McCurnen. He managed to split the country over whether he's fit to still be in office with these charges hanging over him. I mean half of Israeli society sees him as a unfairly maligned persecuted great leader like a man of the people and the other half of Israel sees him as a lying charlatan who should have left office a long time ago

25:45so his refusal to quit public life and to keep fighting these charges in any way that he can led to this political crisis in Israel where there were five elections in the space of four and a half years. Netanyahu losing power briefly in 2021 before returning as prime minister for a sixth time at the end of the following year the corruption cases against him ongoing to this day so since then Netanyahu has been entirely dependent on parties to the right of him on the far right in a way that he know Israeli prime minister has ever been before and in order to ensure that he remained in power Netanyahu actually broke an agreement between the two most far right parties and one of these parties headed by Itamar Ben-Gvir is considered beyond the pale by the vast majority of Israelis and would not have got into the Knessa unless Netanyahu had broken

26:47distilled. In other words the existence and now consolidation of the most far right wing party in Israel is a direct result of Netanyahu's desire to stay in office and that means that the far right in Israel have had a veto on all Israeli policy towards the Palestinians and that Netanyahu in order to stay in power has let them have that veto. And a big part of that comes back to his narrative that lov him or lov him believe him or mistrust him Israel is under threat strong leadership is vital and he Netanyahu is that leader he loved it again. Netanyahu has with quite some success been able to portray himself as Mr. Security that Israel is in safer hands when it is Netanyahu that is Prime Minister. Then on October the 7th 2023 everything changed.

27:48Israeli soldiers and civilians are being held hostage as part of an unprecedented attack by Palestinian militants on Israeli territory. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was at war. So the 7th of October attacks against Israel was not only probably the most traumatic and painful period in Israel's history it was also the biggest military intelligence failure in Israel's history at least since the 1973 Yom Kippur war when Egypt surprised Israel. So you have this national trauma pain and failure on the part of the government to preempt this Netanyahu was Prime Minister the buck stopped with him. Around 1200 Israelis were killed in the attack by Hamas militants, 251 hostages seized and taken back to Gaza. And then unsurprisingly overnight his polling absolutely plummeted and at that point everyone wrote off Netanyahu everyone was saying that's the end of his political career there is no way that he is going to

28:52recover from that. Netanyahu's response was to declare war. The Israeli army first bombing then invading Gaza determined to destroy Hamas as the war progressed hostage families beginning to question whether Netanyahu's priorities were right. Mass protests in Israel again this weekend began to bend. Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to escalate the war and conquer Gaza City. But Netanyahu didn't stop there there were strikes on Iranian revolutionary guard commanders in Syria a conflict against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon including surprising methods of attack. In supermarkets on the street in cars at home thousands of Hezbollah members simultaneously injured by exploding pages. The military operation in Gaza alone killing tens of thousands of people destroying thousands of buildings and severely restricting the supply of food and aid. The international

29:53criminal court later issuing an arrest warrant for him as well as a Hamas leader over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Netanyahu outraged. Branding Israel's leaders and soldiers as war criminals will pour jet fuel on the fires of anti-semitism those fires that are already raging on the campuses of America and across capitals around the world. It will also be the first time that a democratic country fighting for its life according to the rules of war is itself accused of war crimes. Netanyahu spent much of the past two years trying to restore his reputation as Israel's protector. You love it. Of course Netanyahu is always described as the magician and somehow he's been able to rehabilitate himself to a large extent in Israel. Now how do you restore your public standing in Israel? If you're Netanyahu it is by again trying to reclaim the mantle of Mr. Security. Trying to do that in Gaza claiming to have defeated Hamas eliminating Nasrallah the head

30:55of Hezbollah against which Israel has also been fighting that is what he's done and that has led to accusations in Israel against Netanyahu that Netanyahu has been exploiting these wars for his own political gains. Netanyahu said such claims are malicious and false. Then in January 2025 with a Republican president back in the White House Netanyahu found someone sympathetic to his worldview. Trump launching missile strikes and bombing Iran's nuclear facilities last June and three weeks ago this. Short time ago the United States military began major combat operations in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating eminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Iran's supreme leader killed on the first day.

32:00There are some who think Netanyahu has played Trump, pushed the US president into joining him in this war. Fake news was Netanyahu's response this week but there's no doubting Netanyahu's resolve. This coalition of forces allows us to do what I have yearned to do for 40 years. He said at the start of the bombing campaign Jonathan Reinhold again. In the Netanyahu believes he was put on the planet to save the state of Israel from Iran. I mean he believes it. So what he's doing with Iran is born of conviction but he will squeeze every last drop of political benefit out of it. This is a man with exceptional capabilities and deep character flaws. The world benefits from the former and suffers from the latter. We benefit in my opinion in that he is willing to take risks to deal with big threats that if they were left alone would come to threaten everyone within a decade. He believes

33:01that he is the savior of Israel and it just so happens that that coincides with his political interests. So where do we go from here? What of the Israeli Prime Minister's future? Netanyahu is facing multiple charges of corruption. It is clear that he's doing everything possible to delay that trial and every time he'll point to a national security crisis and say well I can't come to court tomorrow because we're at war with Iran. And so the view from many Israelis which I share is there is a personal political benefit to having these regional wars because again he can portray Israeli successes as his successes while at the same time delaying his criminal trial. Israel must hold elections later this year so convenium in Netanyahu win a record seventh term in office, the economist Israel correspondent Ann Chilfefer. He wants to be the person who defines his own historic record. He's recently written

34:01in the memoir. He wants to write all the stories, all the anecdotes, to craft a narrative partly because he's a historian son and has this awareness of the importance of the historic record. I think it's very much the judgment of the Israeli voters and this election will be an extremely important election because if Netanyahu does lose this election it will be because of October 7 more than anything else. He may win this election he's only going all out to win it but if he loses and if he can't come back to power again I think that will be the beginning of a very different judgment on his on his very long record than the one he's trying to establish. I'm Mark Coles thank you for listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service. If you enjoyed this episode you can hear more episodes on influential people by searching for profile wherever you get your BBC podcast.