According to exit polls, his conservative party, Likud, led the legislative elections on Tuesday night, which could allow him to form a coalition with his ultra-Orthodox and far-right allies, and return to power.
In the campaign for this election, the fifth in three and a half years, everyone agreed on one point about Netanyahu: his indefatigable energy at the service of an intact will to govern.
At 73 years old, andThis man, as adored as he was hated, toured the country with the “Bibimóvil”, a fully glazed and protected truck, inspired by the pope’s vehicle.
For the first time since 2009, Netanyahu would not compete as outgoing prime minister, since he was ousted from power in June 2021 by a heterogeneous coalition.
The experienced politician will never retire on his own accord, says Aviv Bushinsky, his former spokesman and a great Likud insider.
“He will do everything possible to form a coalition, even the craziest things,” Bushinsky told AFP. “He thinks he has received a mission from God to save the country,” he adds.
Despite his indictment for corruption in a series of legal cases – accusations that he denies – “Bibi” has the unwavering support of his most faithful followers.
– Colonization –
With his unmistakable raspy voice, his gray hair always impeccably coiffed, Netanyahu is deeply marked by the heritage of the Israeli right.
Born in Tel Aviv on October 21, 1949, grew up with the strong ideological background of his father, Benzion, that he was personal assistant to Zeev Jabotinsky, leader of the so-called “revisionist” Zionist tendency, in favor of a “Greater Israel” that also includes Jordan.
Opposed to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in Oslo, which he himself helped to bury, Netanyahu advocates a vision of Israel as a “Jewish state”, whose borders extend as far as Jordan. In this sense, he supports the annexation of areas of the occupied West Bank and his measures favored an increase in settlements.
In the 1970s, after the Six-Day War (1967), andYoung Benjamin performs his military service in an elite commando.
But it is above all his older brother, Yoni, who stands out in the army. His death in 1976, during the Israeli assault to free hostages from a Tel Aviv-Paris flight, deeply moves Netanyahu, who will make the “fight against terrorism” one of the main themes of his career.
– Soldier, diplomat, prime minister –
Although he maintains his harsh statements against the Palestinian leadership, Netanyahu defended the recent normalization of relations with Arab countries (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco).
A born orator, Netanyahu is also a career diplomat. He lived in the United States, where he studied and was ambassador to the UN in the 1980s.
When he returned to Israel he was elected deputy in 1988 for the Likud party, the great formation of the Israeli right, in which he soon became the new star.
His rise was unstoppable until 1996 when, at the age of 46, he became the youngest prime minister in Israel’s history. But his rule lasted only three years.
After staying away for some time, he returned to his great passion, politics, led Likud again and was elected Prime Minister again in 2009 until 2021.
“Soldier, I fought to defend Israel on the battlefields. Diplomatic, I rejected the attacks against its legitimacy in international forums. Minister of Finance and Prime Minister, I sought to strengthen his economic and political power among nations”Netanyahu writes in his recently published biography.
In it, he adds that he also helped “guarantee the future of his old town.”
