Bibi : the turbulent life and times of Benjamin Netanyahu

A deeply reported biography of the scandal-plagued Israeli Prime Minister, showing that we cannot understand Israel -- its history, present, and future -- without first understanding the life and worldview of the man who leads it Benjamin Netanyahu is embroiled in numerous scandals, all of his own making, and may soon be ousted from the office he has held longer than any prior Israeli Prime Minister outside of David Ben Gurion. But Bibi, as he is known by friend and foe alike, is no stranger to controversy. For many in Israel and elsewhere, he is an embarrassment, a threat to democracy, even a precursor to Donald Trump. He nevertheless continues to dominate Israeli public life -- and he may yet survive his current crises, the most challenging of his career. How can we explain Netanyahu's rise, his hold on Israeli politics, and his outsized role on the world's stage? In Bibi, the Haaretz journalist Anshel Pfeffer argues that we must view Netanyahu as representing the triumph of the underdogs in the Zionist enterprise. Born in 1949, one year after the state of Israel itself, Netanyahu came of age in a nation dominated by liberal, secular Zionists. Yet Netanyahu's grandfather and father bequeathed to him a brand of Zionism integrating Jewish nationalism and religious traditionalism, and he identified with the groups at the margins of Israeli society: right-wing Revisionists, orthodox, Mizrahi Jews, and small-time professionals living in the new towns and cities dotting the Israeli landscape. Netanyahu cultivated each faction individually and then fused them into a coalition that has frequently proven unstoppable in Israeli politics. Netanyahu is also a child of America, where he spent many years as a young man, and where he learned the techniques of modern political campaigns as well as the necessity of controlling the media cycle. The product of the affluent East Coast Jewish community and the Reagan era, Netanyahu's politics and worldview were formed as much by American Cold War conservatism as by his family's hardline right-wing Zionism. As Pfeffer demonstrates in this penetrating biography, Netanyahu's influence will endure even if his career soon comes to an end. The Israel he has helped make is a hybrid of ancient phobia and high-tech hope, tribalism and globalism -- just like the man himself. "A deeply reported biography of the scandal-plagued Israeli Prime Minister, showing that we cannot understand Israel-its history, present, and future-without first understanding the life and worldview of the man who leads it Benjamin Netanyahu is embroiled in numerous scandals, all of his own making, and may soon be ousted from the office he has held longer than any prior Israeli Prime Minister outside of David Ben Gurion. But Bibi, as he is known by friend and foe alike, is no stranger to controversy. For many in Israel and elsewhere, he is an embarrassment, a threat to democracy, even a precursor to Donald Trump. He nevertheless continues to dominate Israeli public life-and he may yet survive his current crises, the most challenging of his career. How can we explain Netanyahu's rise, his hold on Israeli politics, and his outsized role on the world's stage' In Bibi, the Haaretz journalist Anshel Pfeffer argues that we must view Netanyahu as representing the triumph of the underdogs in the Zionist enterprise. Born in 1949, one year after the state of Israel itself, Netanyahu came of age in a nation dominated by liberal, secular Zionists. Yet Netanyahu's grandfather and father bequeathed to him a brand of Zionism integrating Jewish nationalism and religious traditionalism, and he identified with the groups at the margins of Israeli society: right-wing Revisionists, orthodox, Mizrahi Jews, and small-time professionals living in the new towns and cities dotting the Israeli landscape. Netanyahu cultivated each faction individually and then fused them into a coalition that has frequently proven unstoppable in Israeli politics. Netanyahu is also a child of America, where he spent many years as a young man, and where he learned the techniques of modern political campaigns as well as the necessity of controlling the media cycle. The product of the affluent East Coast Jewish community and the Reagan era, Netanyahu's politics and worldview were formed as much by American Cold War conservatism as by his family's hardline right-wing Zionism. As Pfeffer demonstrates in this penetrating biography, Netanyahu's influence will endure even if his career soon comes to an end. The Israel he has helped make is a hybrid of ancient phobia and high-tech hope, tribalism and globalism-just like the man himself"--Publisher's description Presents A Candid Account Of The Prime Minister's Rise To Power, Focusing On His Consolidation Of Zionist Fringe Politics To Gain A Long-lasting Foothold In Israeli Government And Examining His Enduring Influence On The Region. -- Prologue: Netanyahu's Israel -- 1. Frustrated Lovers Of Zion 1879-1948. An Orator Of The Highest Grace ; Propaganda, Propaganda, And Propaganda ; On The Sidelines Of History ; The End Of The Great Zionist Dream -- 2. Outsiders In The New State 1949-1976. Life Within Sharp Borders ; A Terrible Dislocation ; American Ben, Israeli Bibi ; You Have To Kill Arabs ; I've Reached My Target ; Trying To Save The State -- 3. Breaking The Elite 1976-1996. Stop The World! ; Why Aren't You In Uniform? ; Prime Minister In Ten Years' Time ; If He Had A Sense Of Humor, He'd Be A 10 ; Prime Minister? Of Course Not ; A Crime Unprecedented In The History Of Democracy ; A Political Failure? ; Rabin Is Not A Traitor ; Good For The Jews -- 4. Israel's Serial Bungler 1996-2009. The Bedrock Of Our Existence ; Dragged To Wye ; They. Are. Afraid ; A Concerned Citizen ; My Own Media ; Threats Are What Work -- 5. Stuck On Top 2009-2018. A New Pragmatic Bibi? ; Your Father Wrote History, You Are Making History ; The Arab Voters Are Moving In Droves ; A Bad Mistake Of Historic Proportions ; Nothing Will Happen, Because Nothing Happened -- Epilogue: Netanyahu's Israel At Seventy. Anshel Pfeffer. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. In this detailed retelling of Benjamin Netanyahu's life - including his childhood, his relationships with his father and brothers, his military service and his political rise - journalist Anshell Pfeffer paints the Israeli prime minister as uncompromising to a fault. Under Netanyahu, Palestinian peace is unlikely, Pfeffer reports, as is any sort of right-left coalition. Pfeffer occasionally defends Netanyahu, as when he absolves the prime minister of responsibility for Yitzhak Rabin's assassination; but in general, he paints Netanyahu as a hard-edged leader who prefers to rule without dissent