- 2 months ago
Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and one of its most influential—and polarizing—political figures. Here’s a condensed history:
Early Life & Military Service
Born October 21, 1949, in Tel Aviv, Israel, to historian Benzion Netanyahu.
Grew up partly in the United States, giving him fluent English and an understanding of American politics.
Served in Sayeret Matkal, Israel’s elite special forces unit, participating in high-risk missions, including the 1972 Sabena Flight 571 hijacking rescue.
Education & Early Career
Studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and briefly attended Harvard.
Worked as a management consultant and later became Israel’s deputy chief of mission in Washington, D.C., and ambassador to the United Nations (1984–1988).
Political Rise
Elected to the Knesset in 1988 as a member of the Likud party.
Served as Deputy Foreign Minister and then rose to Likud leadership.
First Term as Prime Minister (1996–1999)
Won a narrow election victory, becoming Israel’s youngest prime minister at age 46.
Advocated for security-first policies in peace negotiations but signed the Wye River Memorandum with the Palestinians in 1998.
Lost reelection to Ehud Barak in 1999.
Return to Politics
Served as Foreign Minister (2002–2003) and Finance Minister (2003–2005) under Ariel Sharon, implementing free-market reforms.
Resigned over the Gaza disengagement plan in 2005 and regained Likud leadership.
Second Era as Prime Minister (2009–2021)
Returned to power in 2009 and became Israel’s longest-serving leader.
Oversaw economic growth, improved Israel’s relations with some Arab states, and took a hard stance on Iran’s nuclear program.
Signed the Abraham Accords (2020), normalizing ties with UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.
Faced repeated corruption investigations and indictments on bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges.
Opposition & Comeback (2021–present)
Lost power in 2021 to a diverse coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.
Staged a comeback in late 2022, forming a right-wing government with religious and nationalist allies.
His judicial reform plan sparked mass protests and deep political division in 2023.
As of 2025, Netanyahu remains central in Israel’s political landscape, particularly amid ongoing conflict with Hamas and tensions with Iran.
Early Life & Military Service
Born October 21, 1949, in Tel Aviv, Israel, to historian Benzion Netanyahu.
Grew up partly in the United States, giving him fluent English and an understanding of American politics.
Served in Sayeret Matkal, Israel’s elite special forces unit, participating in high-risk missions, including the 1972 Sabena Flight 571 hijacking rescue.
Education & Early Career
Studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and briefly attended Harvard.
Worked as a management consultant and later became Israel’s deputy chief of mission in Washington, D.C., and ambassador to the United Nations (1984–1988).
Political Rise
Elected to the Knesset in 1988 as a member of the Likud party.
Served as Deputy Foreign Minister and then rose to Likud leadership.
First Term as Prime Minister (1996–1999)
Won a narrow election victory, becoming Israel’s youngest prime minister at age 46.
Advocated for security-first policies in peace negotiations but signed the Wye River Memorandum with the Palestinians in 1998.
Lost reelection to Ehud Barak in 1999.
Return to Politics
Served as Foreign Minister (2002–2003) and Finance Minister (2003–2005) under Ariel Sharon, implementing free-market reforms.
Resigned over the Gaza disengagement plan in 2005 and regained Likud leadership.
Second Era as Prime Minister (2009–2021)
Returned to power in 2009 and became Israel’s longest-serving leader.
Oversaw economic growth, improved Israel’s relations with some Arab states, and took a hard stance on Iran’s nuclear program.
Signed the Abraham Accords (2020), normalizing ties with UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.
Faced repeated corruption investigations and indictments on bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges.
Opposition & Comeback (2021–present)
Lost power in 2021 to a diverse coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.
Staged a comeback in late 2022, forming a right-wing government with religious and nationalist allies.
His judicial reform plan sparked mass protests and deep political division in 2023.
As of 2025, Netanyahu remains central in Israel’s political landscape, particularly amid ongoing conflict with Hamas and tensions with Iran.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00We have several situations unfolding near the Gaza border.
00:07Our world is in upheaval.
00:11October 7th is a day that will forever live in infamy.
00:17The failures of October 7th are the failures of Benjamin Netanyahu.
00:23Israel's darkest days since the Holocaust happened under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's watch.
00:29In those first hours and days, he was in complete shock.
00:32Everything he believed about Hamas turned out to be wrong.
00:35He was Mr. Security.
00:37I guess the 7th of October changed things fundamentally.
00:41His response to the Hamas terror attacks was immediate and devastating.
00:46Never again must never be an empty promise.
00:50Never again is now.
00:53He portrays himself very much as somebody who is being persecuted,
00:57but that he always arises triumphant.
01:00Israelis have always been divided on their support for Netanyahu.
01:05But in the last year, he split the country like never before.
01:10This is the story of Israel's longest serving leader.
01:14I think he's convinced that only he can save Israel.
01:17He's a great leader. I think he's a leader of historic proportions.
01:20I think he's the greatest statesman we've had.
01:23How a life in power has defined his actions over the last 12 months.
01:27He's not a diplomat. He's a populist politician.
01:30I think that we cannot rule out anything that might help him ensure his own personal political survival.
01:37Can such a controversial figure balance peace and security in one of the most volatile regions on earth?
01:46Benjamin Netanyahu is born in Israel in 1949.
02:02A new country fighting for its place in the world.
02:12I knew his father very well, Bencio Netanyahu.
02:15And he grew up in an extremely intellectual and very Zionist, very dedicated Zionist household.
02:24Zionism is the movement for a Jewish homeland in the state of Israel.
02:29His father was very active in the political world, not necessarily as a politician, but had very strong opinions on Israel's security.
02:37Benjamin's father, Benzion, is a university lecturer and a historian who helps guide the Zionist movement in a more right-wing direction.
02:47He impresses on his sons the idea of Israel having a sovereign state and a strong military.
02:54He was born with natural intelligence, charisma and ambition.
03:00And in a sense he was in the right place at the right time.
03:03In 1948, a year before Netanyahu is born, Israel comes into being.
03:09A small but powerful nation in the heart of the Middle East.
03:14In the aftermath of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust, there was an urgency for a Jewish homeland.
03:22The resolution of the Duck Committee for Palestine was adopted by 33 votes, 13 against, 10 abstinence.
03:35Following a contentious vote by the United Nations to partition Palestine, the state of Israel is born.
03:42Israel had taken its place among the nations of the world.
03:47But it's a nation menaced on almost every side by Arab hostility.
03:52And as its people get down to the tough task of tilling a barren soil, they must go armed.
03:58There is a sense of optimism in the new country, but it comes at a cost.
04:04Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are forced out of their homes.
04:09It was during the time of the establishment of Israel, whereby two-thirds of the Palestinian people were physically forced out of their homes, of their farms, of their businesses, of their properties.
04:21My own parents and my own grandparents included.
04:24The moment that Israel declares independence, the neighbors come in and start a war, right?
04:36And they just don't accept the terms of Israel's existence.
04:40Israel is in a very tough neighborhood.
04:43And if you look on a map, you'll see that it's surrounded by folks that, if we look right now, don't seem like very good friends to them.
04:51Benjamin, known by family and friends as Bibi, grows up in a country whose existence from the start is contested.
05:00But he doesn't spend all his childhood in Israel.
05:03His father moves the family to the United States, a cultural shift which shapes Netanyahu.
05:10Netanyahu's childhood would have been different from many of the other Israelis of his generation, primarily because part of his youth was spent in the United States, which means he learned English very well.
05:24It also means he was exposed in a very organic way to American life, eventually American political life, and American Jewish life.
05:33At 18, Netanyahu leaves high school and returns to Israel to join the military, along with his brother Yoni.
05:42It's instilled in him that a strong army is needed to protect your homeland.
05:48What's fascinating about Benjamin Netanyahu, in a way, is he had, by any normal standards, a pretty stellar military career.
05:57He was in one of the elite combat units, Sayeret Matkal.
06:01He was one of the people involved in kind of special forces work, at one point took a bullet.
06:06The culture of his unit, Sayeret Matkal, which means only the daring will succeed.
06:14Nothing can stand in the way to get your goals.
06:18In that respect, I think that he is tenacious, he is setting a goal, and like a laser beam, he's concentrating on the goal.
06:28He's incredibly focused. He's goal driven, and in our, you know, world where every other person you meet has ADHD, it's pretty amazing to see a guy who can just focus on the task at hand.
06:43In 1972, Netanyahu goes back to the States to study architecture and management.
06:50He gets married and finds a job, but it isn't long before something brings him back to Israel.
06:57The turning point in his life came in 1976 with the heroic episode in Israeli mythology, the Entebbe rescue.
07:08Here's the situation in what's turning out to be the year's most spectacular hijack story.
07:13On June the 27th, 1976, a plane is hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
07:23248 passengers are held hostage in Entebbe, Uganda.
07:28Relatives of the Israeli hostages held an emotional meeting with government representatives this morning.
07:34They didn't care that Israel has a basic policy of not dealing with terrorists.
07:39The Palestinian hijackers with some non-Arab accomplices now say they will execute the hostages on Sunday, unless their demands are met.
07:49After a week, Israel launches a surprise rescue operation involving Israeli special forces, the Sayeret Matkal.
08:04The main problem was to get to the terrorists with the biggest surprise possible.
08:11The group uses a decoy car to get into the terminal and take out the hijackers in an assault that lasts 30 minutes.
08:19The rescue mission is led by Benjamin Netanyahu's older brother and is celebrated as a success.
08:40His brother, Yoni, was simultaneously hailed as the hero, the commanding officer, one of the commanders,
08:46and also the sole military casualty.
08:53The entire family was shattered by it.
08:55Netanyahu, of course, was shattered by it.
08:57He heard the news.
08:58He was the one who had to drive to his parents in Ithaca and break the news to them.
09:01There's no question that it would have a terrible impact on the family.
09:07To give up your life in the interests of your country is the supreme act of patriotism.
09:12And he would have been intensely proud of his brother.
09:15But also felt that there is a legacy that has to be continued, albeit in a different way.
09:22He took what happened with his brother, what his brother sacrificed,
09:37and he was able to provide the intellectual foundations for the United States and for many Western democracies in building an approach to fighting terrorism.
09:50Benjamin Netanyahu devoted himself to memorializing Yoni and established the Yonatan Institute and published his letters and made sure that Israeli society would valorize Yoni Netanyahu.
10:03Did he do it purposely and strategically? I have no idea, but he certainly was able to benefit from being associated with the great image of Yoni.
10:10Yoni Netanyahu.
10:11Yoni Netanyahu, who was the leader of that raid. And we have with him his brother, Benjamin Netanyahu.
10:20And he finishes the description in his book. I do not know how many men there are like Yoni in Israel, but I'm sure we have enough to ensure that Israel meets the grim tests that face her in the future.
10:35He regularly appears on television, honing his message, building the connection between Israel and the USA.
10:47Nobody wants peace more than Israel. But the stumbling block to the road for peace is this demand for a PLO state, which will mean more war, which will mean more violence in the Middle East.
10:57It's certainly one of Netanyahu's main assets that he can do what, in a sense, no other Israeli politician can do. He can go and speak in particular to American audiences in flawless American English.
11:10The media loved him in the beginning. Well, he's a master of the media. The camera also likes him. He would not have any interviews where they showed his right side. He said his left side was better.
11:23His American English and his ability to really traverse both worlds, to have a leg in Israel and a leg firmly in the United States as well, made him very unique in being able to communicate the Israeli story to Americans and make it meaningful to them.
11:39It's from this platform that Netanyahu eventually becomes ambassador to the United Nations.
11:52He was a great ambassador. He used his intelligence. He used his rhetorical capabilities. Also, I think he used his charm.
12:04He had very many good personal relations with foreign ambassadors, with the American ambassador. But he was always a tough nut.
12:17At what stage he became a political animal, it's a little bit hard to tell, but he clearly followed things closely and understood that the focus on kind of stealing the show, making himself the center of attention was new in Israeli life.
12:29He also took American political consultants and speech coaches.
12:35By the early 90s, Netanyahu is elected to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
12:50It's 1993 and an historic ceremony is happening in Washington, D.C.
12:56President Clinton is hoping to create peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians in an arrangement known as the Oslo Accords.
13:05It was the first major breakthrough between Israelis and Palestinians since 1948.
13:12After nearly 30 years of fear, hatred and bloody conflict, Israel and the PLO took a decisive step on the road to peace.
13:22The eyes of the 3,000 VIP guests were set firmly on the PLO chairman and Israel's premier.
13:29Arafat and Rabin, once the bitterest of enemies, now perhaps just a little uneasy at their first meeting.
13:36At one level, it was a huge step in the right direction, because as part of the accord, Arafat and the Palestinians renounced terrorism as a mode of political activity.
13:51And ultimately said they could accept the permanent existence of the state of Israel.
13:58Then came the signing of an agreement that gives self-government to the 1.8 million Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
14:09Throughout the ceremony, the leaders had stayed backstage. Would they shake hands?
14:14Eventually they did, uneasily.
14:23By now, Netanyahu is a big player in Israeli politics. He's also sceptical about the accords.
14:31I think the whole conception that we would entrust our security and the battle against terrorism to Yasser Arafat in the PLO was preposterous from the start.
14:41Netanyahu, like the majority of Israelis, opposed the Oslo Accords until 1993's real stated position was that you don't negotiate with terrorists.
14:50You don't make deals with terrorists. You can't.
14:52Netanyahu's political brand was created in no small part through his opposition to the Oslo agreements.
15:00His Excellency Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, Chairman Arafat.
15:05He didn't want them. He doesn't believe in Palestinian self-determination. He barely says the word Palestinian. He says it, but he doesn't like it.
15:16And he has committed himself for decades to doing everything he can to avoid there ever being a Palestinian state.
15:23The people of Israel want a real peace. And real peace means peace with security, peace they can trust with a partner they can trust.
15:30And they don't feel they have it here. We want a real peace, not a fake one.
15:34Prime Minister Rabin and Netanyahu now stand firmly apart on the issue. They organize opposing rallies.
15:43In October 1995, Netanyahu speaks at one of the biggest anti-Oslo events.
15:54At the time, there were accusations that Netanyahu led mobs that incited crowds against Rabin. Rabin was depicted on posters that Netanyahu looked out on, saw in the crowds he was addressing, depicting Rabin as Yasser Arafat, a Palestinian leader.
16:12Or even in the uniform of a Nazi in the SS uniform.
16:19On the other side are the Israelis in favour of Oslo. They rally under the banner of yes to peace, no to violence.
16:30An estimated 100,000 Israelis turn out at one event. Those in attendance hold hands and sing songs together.
16:39To the world it looks like a beautiful moment of solidarity.
16:49But as the rally is drawing to a close and Rabin is descending from the stage, there is unease in the air.
17:12Tonight, at 11.10, the Prime Minister of Israel and the Minister of Defence, Mr. Nizhak Rabin, passed away.
17:31He was hit by three bullets in his chest and his abdomen.
17:46I always referred to it as part of the most successful assassination in history, because the objective was to prevent there ever being a peace process.
17:57And look, 30 years on, there's never been any progress. It achieved its goal.
18:02Rabin is shot by a right-wing extremist opposed to his peace policies.
18:08His death sends shockwaves around the world.
18:20That was a bullet not just in the heart of an Israeli Prime Minister, it was a bullet in the heart of the whole peace process.
18:26It was a bullet directed to completely kill any home for a two-state solution outcome.
18:33The American people mourn with you and the loss of your leader.
18:38And I mourn with you for he was my partner and friend.
18:49The extent of Netanyahu's responsibility for the situation has been debated for three decades.
18:56Netanyahu was the opposition candidate who was very critical of Rabin, who certainly contributed to an atmosphere of hostility to Rabin.
19:11I think it's a very, very nuanced question about the degree of his responsibility for that.
19:17Netanyahu over and over and over again spoke out against the rhetoric that was referring to Yitzchak Rabin as a traitor.
19:26He rejected it out of hand. He defended him.
19:29He did not engage in incitement.
19:33He engaged in responsible discourse on a very controversial and ultimately very emotional issue in Israel.
19:42After the assassination, the country is bereft. Rabin's deputy, Shimon Perez, takes charge.
19:52However, it's not long before the country goes to the polls to choose a new leader.
20:02And Netanyahu runs for office for the first time.
20:07It doesn't look like the face of victory.
20:10Mr. Perez knows that today's vote could go either way.
20:13Right up to the end, he's repeating the Labour Party campaign mantra.
20:17I think the peace process will come to an end.
20:20And I think the intifada will be increased.
20:23His concept of negotiations is collective bargaining.
20:27We bargain, they collect.
20:28I have a different concept.
20:29That is that it's give and take, not take and take.
20:33There will be mutual concessions and they'll have to abide by it.
20:37There were a series of suicide bombings that Hamas was undertaking against Israeli civilians.
20:44He certainly was in the thick of it, blaming Oslo, blaming Israel's decisions and leading the population to really view the Oslo process as having pulled the trigger on those suicide bombs.
20:57And he capitalized on it, no question, in order to rally his supporters and get elected.
21:03Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu elected with a wafer-thin margin of just 30,000 votes, less than 1% of the turnout.
21:18Finally, Netanyahu is leading the Israeli people.
21:22But the peace process isn't at the top of his to-do list.
21:28The Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind expressed Britain's grave concern at the faltering peace process before meeting the Israeli Prime Minister in Jerusalem today.
21:37He was Prime Minister.
21:39He continued the accords, despite having been so against them.
21:42He slowed them down, he signed them incrementally, grudgingly, which led to the collapse of the entire peace process.
21:49The public decide the blame for the lack of progress lies with Netanyahu, and vote him out at the next election.
22:00In the years that follow, the repeated failure of the peace talks contributes to a surge in violence from frustrated Palestinians.
22:09I think when you're desperate, and there's no other means, and you have no other channel to which you can actually voice all of the pain and trauma and difficulty, and you're, you know, to say something about your conditions, then you turn to violence.
22:28The
22:39Carnage in the heart of Jerusalem after bus number 19 was blown apart by a suicide bomber at the height of the Russia.
22:47The blast took place just round the corner from the official residence of Israel's Prime Minister, Eric Sharon.
22:55During the period, Israelis live in constant fear of suicide bombings on the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
23:04They look once again to Benjamin Netanyahu to defend their embattled state.
23:11Absolutely nothing can be achieved by attempts of violence or threats of violence or the use of violence.
23:17In fact, the opposite will happen. If violence is attempted, Israel will respond, and it will set us all back, it will set peace back.
23:27Some of the attacks in Israel are carried out by Hamas, a militant group with a political wing.
23:34The population of Gaza support Hamas because of their unwavering dedication to the Palestinian cause.
23:42They soon become the governing force of the Gaza Strip.
23:46The Israeli government's initial reaction was to be delighted.
23:51Because although Hamas were an extreme Islamist organization, one of the principles of normal political process is,
23:58if you can divide your enemy, your enemy is weaker and you are stronger.
24:01And here the Palestinians were deeply divided.
24:04If you think about what makes Netanyahu a powerful political figure, it is the fact that he is seen as the military guy.
24:16If there is an enemy on his territory that he can keep under control, there is a reason for Israelis to keep re-electing him
24:23and for him to keep existing as a political figure and the embodiment of the fight.
24:31Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel and many countries around the world.
24:41As long as they are in control of Gaza, Netanyahu can argue for a strong security presence.
24:49This is an organization committed to our destruction.
24:52You can only make peace with an enemy that wants peace.
24:56An enemy that continues to seek your destruction is not a partner for peace.
25:00We're looking for a peace partner.
25:04Netanyahu was reported saying to fellow politicians,
25:07if you don't want to see a Palestinian state, then it's in our interest to bulk up, beef up, strength Hamas.
25:16The violence and division in occupied Palestine and Israel continues.
25:21By 2009, the country is ready to elect Netanyahu as Prime Minister once again.
25:30It's 2009 and Benjamin Netanyahu is set to begin his longest run at the top of Israeli politics.
25:45He leads a coalition in Israel's parliament, the Knesset.
25:52In election after election, the amount of votes that Netanyahu's party receives as a percentage of the entire electorate is never really exceeds more than 20-25% of the electorate.
26:04He's very skilled at building coalitions.
26:08One of the problems that all Israeli Prime Ministers have is their ghastly electoral system of proportional representation.
26:17And that meant even tiny parties had to be represented in the parliament.
26:22And it meant that every government had to be a Kurdish.
26:25Netanyahu, I think, understands that right now he cannot change the system, so he masters the system.
26:33How do you master the system?
26:34Give more than your opposition to the parties in the middle.
26:41So he would give more budgets to the religious parties.
26:44He would give everything that the right-wing parties want,
26:49something that sometimes is even on the expense of Israeli national interests.
26:55Netanyahu goes on to win five more elections by organising coalitions in this way.
27:04Netanyahu will move back into the Prime Minister's residence in Jerusalem for a sixth time.
27:10He only left it 16 months ago.
27:13In fact, he's held power almost uninterrupted for the last 20 years or so.
27:18A generation has grown up here thinking that the words Prime Minister and Benjamin Netanyahu are basically,
27:24you know, synonymous.
27:25You might not necessarily agree with his politics,
27:28but I think that people can appreciate that he gets what he wants out of a situation.
27:35And he is obviously very good at forming political coalitions.
27:40Not everybody would see this favourably, but he is willing to do what it takes in order to stay in power.
27:52The noise among his supporters out here is reverberating inside that courtroom.
27:57They are just as defiant out here as he is in there.
28:01The longer Netanyahu is in power, the more problems he has to deal with.
28:06Corruption charges filed in 2019 loom over him.
28:11He's on trial in three separate cases.
28:14One has a bribery charge attached to it.
28:16That's the most serious.
28:17And all three of them have fraud and breach of trust elements.
28:20It's been gone for a long, long time.
28:23I'm not trying to minimise it, but I'm saying that the corruption thing is not something that he was selling Israeli secrets to Iran or being a traitor to his country.
28:34It's not that kind of territory.
28:35But it would be the end of his political career if he was convicted.
28:40Amid these corruption charges, Netanyahu backs a plan to limit the Supreme Court's authority and hand power back to the government.
28:51This sparks massive nationwide protests.
28:55The Israeli public woke up, they responded, and they stood up in huge numbers to protest and to say this is not something that we will accept.
29:05If you want to change something so fundamental as the judicial system, you have to do it in a consensus.
29:14He did not do it in a consensus that actually that split Israel into two.
29:19This is where millions came out in the streets to protect and defend the judicial system.
29:26By mid-2023, Netanyahu is preoccupied with internal politics.
29:32He was really thinking about domestic protests and the fact that you've had people marching in the street demonstrating against him for months and months and months.
29:46And all of Israeli society thinking that he should get the heck out of office.
29:51Then, on October the 7th, everything changes.
29:58Breaking news. People across southern Israel have woken up to the sound of sirens.
30:07People were told to shelter indoors.
30:10We have several situations unfolding near the Gaza border.
30:14Israel's defense force says it's declared a state of war and is calling up military reservists.
30:19The most worrying development, some Hamas fighters have managed to get over the border from Gaza into Israel, in some cases using paragliders.
30:27We know that there are bodies, the bodies of Israeli civilians lying on the streets of towns, villages and farms in southern Israel.
30:37The militants sent fighters across the border into Israel.
30:40It is a very, very volatile situation.
30:42If Israeli civilians are all of a sudden finding themselves as hostages inside Gaza Strip, this would be a catastrophe for Israel.
30:49There is nobody who really saw this coming.
30:54More Israeli citizens had been slaughtered at any time since the Second World War.
31:00The biggest loss in Jewish life since the Holocaust.
31:05Hamas fighters kidnapped more than 250 men, women and children from their homes, taking them hostage in the Gaza Strip.
31:15Militarily, their border was not protected sufficiently.
31:18Ultimately, the buck stops with the man in charge.
31:21The failures of October the 7th are the failures of Benjamin Netanyahu.
31:26I think it's important to understand that October the 7th was not only a catastrophe for the State of Israel, for the Jewish people,
31:36it was a personal disaster for Netanyahu himself.
31:40This was really the collapse of Netanyahu's strategic worldview, and many would argue also impart an outcome of his divisive domestic politics.
31:50In those first hours and days, he was in complete shock, because everything he believed about Hamas turned out to be wrong.
31:58He had a long-running understanding of the idea that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not a threat, and that he could manage it without resolving it.
32:05Like it or not like it, and he certainly doesn't like it, October the 7th happened on his watch.
32:11And he was the person who had all the material, all the security information, all the diplomatic information, all the intelligence, and was leading the country.
32:19For over 15 years, Netanyahu has accepted the status quo, with Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip.
32:28He now does everything in his power to take them out.
32:32For the citizens of Israel, we started, and I suggest that we just started to act in Hamas.
32:39The stories of the terrorist and the arrest of the Hamas in Gaza are just the beginning.
32:45We have lost hundreds of soldiers, and we are not going to stop there.
32:49I told you that every place where the Hamas acts from us will turn into flames.
32:55It is already happening today, and it will happen in a certain set in the future.
33:00I think one of the things that became very clear on October 7th is that there is no political solution.
33:10There is only a military solution.
33:13At the command of Netanyahu, the Israeli Defense Force carry out air assaults on Gaza, followed by a full-scale ground offensive.
33:25It's a strategy.
33:26It's a strategy.
33:28They saw it as an opportunity to literally turn Gaza lifeless.
33:34You drop 2,000 pounds bombs on neighborhoods, unimaginable.
33:42Tens of thousands of people have been killed.
33:45Eight is not being let through deliberately.
33:48Israel has been called out for this.
33:51Biden and his team have continuously tried to negotiate access.
33:57But I think it's hard to look at this and not feel like it is collective punishment.
34:04That all Palestinians that lived within the boundaries of Gaza are being punished for what Hamas did.
34:19The death toll is so high because Hamas had what are, in effect, bomb shelters that they use those shelters, and I'm referring to the underground tunnels, for themselves and for their own fighters and commanders, while leaving civilians, children, women, men, above ground and wholly exposed.
34:41I am from Gaza, so I'm on the phone all the time with our people, and what I hear is simply unimaginable.
34:48You wouldn't imagine we would reach this point of a deliberate man-made situation.
34:54This was the absolute chaos moments after the Israeli airstrikes hit the outskirts of Rafa last night.
35:09One of the most significant military maneuvers is the assault on Rafa.
35:15Near the Egyptian border, it's targeted because it's seen as a key Hamas stronghold.
35:22It was obvious that Israel can't win the war without taking over Rafa and the international border between Gaza and Egypt.
35:28In fact, that, to my mind, should have been the first thing that Israel did.
35:31There are no operational hospitals in Rafa now, and so the bodies have been collected at a small clinic.
35:38Two words written on one bag, woman, child.
35:45The suffering is something that we're concerned with.
35:49Israel has gone to lengths that no other government and no other army in modern urban warfare has gone to prevent civilian casualties.
35:58For us, every civilian casualty is a tragedy.
36:02For Hamas, every civilian casualty is a strategy.
36:04They're trying to keep them in harm's way while we're trying to get them out of harm's way.
36:08It's not just the use of bombardments.
36:13It's not just the use of, you know, land invasion and the tanks and all the horrific stories of murdering people in their homes.
36:21It's about the use of disease as a weapon of war, of food and famine as a weapon of war,
36:28whereby the one conclusion is extermination, mass explosion.
36:43Reactions to the brutality of the October 7th attacks and assault on Gaza play out across the world.
36:50Protesters in support of both Palestine and Israel taking to the streets.
36:56Tonight, the crisis in the Middle East fueling demonstrations thousands of miles away.
37:02Well, across the UK, demonstrations calling for a ceasefire have gotten underway.
37:06Tens of thousands of people are flooding the streets in a powerful show of support for Israel.
37:11Back here, protesters have taken to the streets and cities again calling for a ceasefire in the Middle East.
37:17For now, there is no sign of these protests dwindling in number or intensity.
37:24Israel's war with Hamas is now on the global conscience.
37:34The International Criminal Court, based in the Netherlands, calls for the arrest of the leaders of Hamas and Netanyahu himself
37:41for alleged crimes against humanity.
37:45Amongst those charges are the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare,
37:50willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health,
37:55intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity.
38:03Domestically, it hasn't impacted them at all.
38:09Internationally, it really shows the hostile drift of the Western world.
38:14I mean, we're not even a member of the ICC. They have no jurisdiction over Israel.
38:18An independent court that has a political identity that is coming out and trying to say and do something.
38:25And look, there are good grounds here for us all to say we need to at least investigate these charges.
38:32Netanyahu has denied the aspirations of the Palestinians who live under the control of Israel.
38:42So, does he deserve the most severe criticism? Yes.
38:46Is he a war criminal? It depends on how you define these terms.
38:55Critics say Netanyahu is too influenced by the extreme right-wing anti-Arab parties in his coalition government.
39:03He must appease the likes of Security Minister Itimir Ben-Gavir
39:07and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who are fiercely against a ceasefire in Gaza.
39:13Netanyahu is incredibly beholden to the right-wing politics of Israel at this very moment.
39:20And the right is seizing its moment.
39:23And if anything, taking full advantage of it and using the cover of what is going on to do even more.
39:31The far-right has their own agenda, which is quite far-reaching and sometimes, I would say, messianic,
39:38that could be dangerous to the region and to Israel.
39:42And we do not see Netanyahu call them into order because he's afraid that they will bring down his government.
39:51Netanyahu's reliance on his far-right coalition partners creates problems for him at home as well as abroad.
39:57Netanyahu faces a lot of anger among the Israeli public and particularly among hostage families
40:02who feel that he has not put the return of the hostages at the top of his list of priorities.
40:08It's a desperately difficult issue, regardless of whether it's Netanyahu or even the finest, most principled person in the world.
40:20How do you combine defeating a terrorist organization without at the same time endangering your own citizens who are held as hostage by them?
40:29In order to have demonstrations make an impression on a leader, the leader has to have a sense of accountability, responsibility, shame.
40:39And there is no legal mechanism to turn big street protests, even a half a million people into elections.
40:45I think it is reasonable to conclude he does not want to deal because that would mean the end of a war,
40:52which he, for his own political reasons, believes serves him and serves his only true objective, which is staying in power.
41:00I'm leaving this morning on a very important trip to the United States at a time when Israel is fighting on seven fronts.
41:13Israel remains America's indispensable and strong ally in the Middle East.
41:20Israel for many years regarded its number one strategic asset as not being a weapons system or being territory,
41:28but being its relationship with the United States.
41:30The perception that Netanyahu has a privileged and special influence in the United States
41:37is a significant domestic political asset for Netanyahu.
41:41The Prime Minister of the State of Israel.
41:45I think a lot of people would interpret that as actually being less about trying to influence U.S. opinion
41:51and more about trying to influence Israeli opinion, to show the Israeli public that he still has this unique ability
41:58to win over a U.S. political support at a crucial time for the State of Israel.
42:04We meet today at a crossroads of history. Our world is in upheaval.
42:11In the Middle East, Iran's axis of terror confronts America, Israel, and our Arab friends.
42:20This is not a clash of civilizations. It's a clash between barbarism and civilization.
42:28For the forces of civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together.
42:43Still very much at home performing to an American audience, his speech to Congress gets a rapturous reception.
42:51But outside the U.S. capital, hundreds are protesting.
42:58The one person who promised the Israelis that he has got America is the one person who will actually push the U.S.-Israeli relationship apart.
43:10The U.S. used to be unabashedly pro-Israeli, no nuance. Can't even talk about it.
43:19That has shifted now. That whole conversation with a new generation is changing the entire politics of how all of the U.S. sees that relationship with Israel.
43:33Cracks in the Israeli-U.S. relationship are fine ones. They remain strong strategic allies who share an enemy in Iran.
43:45Netanyahu's career began with him warning about Iran. And in fact, people sometimes to satirize him will clip together sort of montages of him saying Iran is only nine months, six months, ten months, a year from a nuclear bomb.
44:02And he's been saying that for 30 plus years.
44:05Here's a diagram. This is a bomb. This is a fuse. In the case of Iran's nuclear plans to build a bomb, this bomb has to be filled with enough enriched uranium.
44:20The most important thing is that we prevent this regime from having atomic bombs to carry out their designs on destroying Israel and their mad fantasy of becoming, taking over the Middle East and from there to the world.
44:35They are bent on Israel's destruction. And he is the one who keeps saying it. And he says Israel has to be prepared for it. And I think his entire career was around stopping Iran.
44:52Iran funds Hamas in Gaza, but it also supports the much larger Islamist militant group Hezbollah, based in Lebanon.
45:01Hezbollah, which is many, many times more powerful than Hamas, is encamped close to the northern border.
45:08Tens of thousands of Israelis can't go back to their homes there. And when we talk about terrorist groups, people should not think of sort of little rag tag cells.
45:18Hezbollah is one of the strongest armies in the world.
45:21The fragile peace on Israel's northern border with Lebanon shattered after October 7th.
45:28And in August, the conflict escalates.
45:35The Israeli pre-emptive strike came in the early hours. Huge explosions rupturing the morning quiet across southern Lebanon.
45:44What was there today was not a complete trial. Hezbollah tried to strike the state of Israel with rockets and with cannons. We were able to strike a serious attack.
45:57In September, an audacious attack in Lebanon involving exploding pages is attributed to Israel.
46:04Yet Hezbollah has shown no sign of submission.
46:08Its leaders vowing to continue the fight.
46:12It marks the start of another war for Netanyahu.
46:20With major wars being waged against Hezbollah and Hamas,
46:25Netanyahu's need to defend Israel is critical.
46:29The decisions he takes in the coming weeks could be the most important in defining his legacy.
46:38The world's view of Israel is being changed in a moment from being the David in the David and Goliath story
46:47to definitely turning into the Goliath.
46:50The country was invaded on his watch.
46:55It is attacked on multiple fronts.
46:57Iran is pulling the strings and closing in on the bomb.
46:59He's got a difficult relationship with the United States.
47:02Israel is largely unloved internationally.
47:04Not all his fault, but partly a function of some of the people in his government
47:08and some of the things he says and does.
47:09Bibi has survived so many things.
47:13He could conceivably even survive the worst breach of Israeli security and sovereignty
47:18in the history of the country since independence.
47:20For us, he would be assembled of the occupation, expansion, and repression and oppression.
47:30But at the very end, I've really brought so much mayhem, so much chaos, so much suffering
47:37to millions of people.
47:40He's always worked towards the goal, one goal, which is to secure Israel and the Jewish people.
47:45To secure us in the present, to secure our future.
47:47He will be the man who took no steps towards resolving Israel's ultimate question,
47:57its relationship with its neighbors, its place in that region.
48:02That is the unfinished work of 1948.
48:05And he has not taken even a step towards it.
48:17To secure us in the past, to secure our future.
48:47To secure our future.
48:48To secure our future.
48:49To secure our future.
48:50To secure our future.
48:51To secure our future.
48:52To secure our future.
48:53To secure our future.
48:54To secure our future.
48:55To secure our future.
48:56To secure our future.
48:57To secure our future.
48:58To secure our future.
48:59To secure our future.
49:00To secure our future.
49:01To secure our future.
49:02To secure our future.
49:03To secure our future.
49:04To secure our future.
49:05To secure our future.
49:06To secure our future.
49:07To secure our future.
49:08To secure our future.
49:09To secure our future.
49:10To secure our future.
49:11To secure our future.
49:12To secure our future.
49:13To secure our future.
49:14To secure our future.
Recommended
24:16
|
Up next
1:48:24
2:29
Be the first to comment