Israel Takes Stock: The Legacy of Benjamin Netanyahu
| DOI | 10.1177/20419058211045146 |
| Author | Ilham Shahbari |
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
34 POLITICAL INSIGHT • SEPTEMBER 2021
Benjamin Netanyahu’s fall from
power in June 2021, marked
the end of one of Israel’s most
consequential and controversial
prime ministers. A totemic gure in
contemporary Israeli politics with a
Churchillian view of his role in history,
Netanyahu was Likud’s longest-serving
leader, holding oce ve times – more than
any other prime minister in the country's 73
year history.
His nal years in oce however, were
arguably the most dramatic in Israel’s recent
political history. Netanyahu’s government,
through sheer force of will, introduced key
legislative changes that sought to legally
arm Israel’s Jewish identity and cement his
vision of Israeli society in law. Nonetheless,
since 2019, he has failed four times to form
a new governing coalition. The constant
state of indecision that has dominated
Israeli politics for two years, reects the
replacement of the traditional ‘left-right’
paradigm with a new political division: pro-
and anti-Netanyahu. As the COVID pandemic
forced Israel into lockdown, protests against
Netanyahu’s public conduct gained traction
across Israel, as he was indicted in three
separate court cases for fraud, a breach of
public trust and accepting bribes.
Having dismissed the Palestinian cause
for over a decade, Netanyahu’s reign set
the scene for more turbulence in Israeli
politics.. This was epitomised in his last
days of oce, when clashes between
Palestinians and Jewish Israelis in the Sheikh
Jarrah neighbourhood in Jerusalem and
the Temple Mount, escalated into wider
inter-communal clashes between Arabs and
Jewish citizens across the country.
Commando, diplomat, or, ethno-
nationalist?
Netanyahu’s almost messianic will to retain
Israel Takes
Stock: The
Legacy of
Benjamin
Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu dominated Israeli politics for decades until losing
power in June. Ilham Shahbari reflects on his political life and times,
and finds that ‘King Bibi’ leaves behind an increasingly fractured Israel.
power has dominated Israeli politics for the
last decade. In understanding the politics
of his nal years in oce, and its legacy,
we must understand the man himself.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s most formative years
were spent in the United States, where his
father, Professor Benzion Netanyahu, a noted
historian with strident right-wing views,
impressed on his sons a worldview that
warned of the vulnerability of the Jewish
people to anti-Semitism, in the wake of
the annihilation of European Jewry in the
Holocaust. With this worldview seemingly
conrmed by attempts by Israel’s Arab
neighbours to defeat the nascent state
during the Six-Day War. Netanyahu, then 18,
and his brothers, volunteered for duty. In
1967 he joined an elite commando unit of
the Israeli Defence Forces, the Sayeret Matkal.
Netanyahu participated in several operations,
gaining national renown after being
wounded in a successful mission to release
hostages from a hijacked Sabena Airlines
aircraft at Ben-Gurion Airport. A dening,
perhaps crucial, moment in his life came with
the death of his eldest brother Yoni, a national
hero who was killed while commanding
© Mark Kerrison / Alamy Stock Photo
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