\n He has led multiple wars, outlasted several American presidents, and watched his political obituary written -- only to be shredded -- more times than any other leader in modern Israeli history.\n<\/p>\n
\n Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, faces an international arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Gaza, a long-running corruption trial, and a spiralling multi-front conflict that has dragged on for nearly three years and saw his country's first direct military confrontations with arch-foe Iran.\n<\/p>\n
\n Now the silver-haired 76-year-old, nicknamed \"Bibi\", is staring down an election that many believe could finally draw the curtain on one of the most consequential and contested careers in Israeli politics -- or extend it once again.\n<\/p>\n
\n Netanyahu has declared that he \"intends to win\" in the election scheduled for October 27, setting the stage for what could be the defining contest of his political life.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Mr. Security' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Netanyahu built his entire career on a single promise: that he alone could keep Israel safe.\n<\/p>\n
\n Then came October 7, 2023.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was the deadliest day in Israel's history, with Hamas's attacks leaving more than 1,200 people dead and shattering the image of \"Mr. Security\" that Netanyahu had spent decades cultivating.\n<\/p>\n
\n The wars that followed have become both a political lifeline and his legacy's greatest threat.\n<\/p>\n
\n Netanyahu has overseen a sweeping retaliatory military campaign in Gaza that left tens of thousands dead.\n<\/p>\n
\n The conflict quickly spread beyond the Palestinian territory, drawing in Lebanon's Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthi rebels, and eventually all three groups' chief backer Iran, fundamentally reshaping the Middle East's strategic landscape.\n<\/p>\n
\n Militarily, Israel demonstrated overwhelming reach, striking deep inside Iran, yet the diplomatic endgame has largely unfolded outside Netanyahu's control.\n<\/p>\n
\n Whether these wars ultimately redeem or irreparably taint his leadership remains the central question in the elections.\n<\/p>\n
\n Born in Tel Aviv on October 21, 1949, Netanyahu is the son of a right-wing Zionist historian -- an ideological inheritance that shaped his entire career.\n<\/p>\n
\n He served in Israel's commando unit and fought in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.\n<\/p>\n
\n Netanyahu has two sons with his third wife Sara and a daughter from a previous marriage.\n<\/p>\n
\n His early life's defining tragedy came when his elder brother Yonatan was killed leading the Entebbe hostage-rescue mission in Uganda.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"When the news reached me that Yoni had died, I felt as if my life had ended,\" Netanyahu later wrote.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Reshaping Middle East -\n<\/p>\n
\n Raised partly in the US and educated at MIT, he became one of Israel's most effective international advocates -- a polished, English-speaking envoy equally comfortable in Washington television studios and UN halls.\n<\/p>\n
\n He entered parliament in 1988, took control of the Likud party in 1993 and, three years later, became Israel's youngest prime minister at 46.\n<\/p>\n
\n In all, he has spent nearly two decades in the role across multiple terms.\n<\/p>\n
\n For years, Netanyahu argued that Israel's security rested on military strength, intelligence superiority and deterrence.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Hamas assault exposed catastrophic failures in all three under his watch.\n<\/p>\n
\n As the war widened, Netanyahu cast the conflict in increasingly historic terms: not merely as a battle against Hamas, but as a once-in-a-generation struggle to reshape the region and break Iran's regional influence.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We are going to change the Middle East,\" he vowed after the Hamas attacks.\n<\/p>\n
\n Supporters say he responded to Israel's darkest hour with unprecedented military determination, challenging Tehran more directly than any predecessor.\n<\/p>\n
\n Critics tell a different story: a leader who used the war to delay a reckoning over the failures behind October 7, and who, they argue, fell short of his own war goals -- namely eliminating Hamas and toppling the Islamic republic.\n<\/p>\n
\n The conflict has also unfolded against a backdrop of a collapsed Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, developments that critics say have pushed the prospect of a Palestinian state further out of reach than ever.\n<\/p>\n
\n - The Trump alliance -\n<\/p>\n
\n Netanyahu has survived and often frustrated successive American administrations, but few foreign relationships have mattered more to him than his ties with US President Donald Trump.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since Trump's return to the White House, the two have maintained a close relationship, with Netanyahu hailing him as \"the greatest friend\" Israel ever had in the White House.\n<\/p>\n
\n But even that alliance has shown signs of strain, with Trump unleashing profanity-laced tirades on his ally amid the fraught negotiations over the Iran deal, which Israel watched from the sidelines.\n<\/p>\n
\n At home, the criticism has grown sharper.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Benjamin Netanyahu is a man blessed with talents, but he has grown old and tired, and is surrounded by the least suitable people to run a country,\" opposition leader Yair Lapid said recently, insisting that accountability for October 7 and Netanyahu's continued leadership are irreconcilable.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Canny survivor -\n<\/p>\n
\n Polls remain challenging, with a majority of Israelis wanting Netanyahu out amid lingering public anger over the October 7 security failures, and he is still fighting corruption charges in court.\n<\/p>\n
\n Yet few politicians in the world have demonstrated a greater instinct for survival.\n<\/p>\n
\n For decades, Netanyahu has defied every prediction of his downfall -- most dramatically in 2022, when he returned to power backed by far-right allies.\n<\/p>\n
\n Now, the battle over his legacy may prove the hardest fight of all.\n<\/p>\n
\n The wars fought under his watch will determine how history remembers him -- a leader, as he once wrote, who spent a lifetime trying to \"secure the future of my ancient people\".\n<\/p>\n
\n In a recent interview, Netanyahu expressed his comfort with making unpopular decisions that he felt were right, saying he felt little need to be lionised in the press.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I would rather get a bad editorial than a positive obituary,\" he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He has led multiple wars, outlasted several American presidents, and watched his political obituary written -- only to be shredded -- more times than any other leader in modern Israeli history. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, faces an international arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Gaza, a long-running corruption trial, and a spiralling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-161751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n