{"id":223681,"date":"2019-07-20T08:32:09","date_gmt":"2019-07-20T12:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=223681"},"modified":"2019-07-25T18:20:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T22:20:34","slug":"netanyahu-makes-history-as-israels-longest-serving-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/20\/netanyahu-makes-history-as-israels-longest-serving-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu makes history as Israel’s longest serving leader"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Netanyahu has often said he would like to be remembered as the \u201cprotector of Israel.\u201d But admirers and critics alike say that what sets him apart is his unparalleled political acumen, a ruthless drive to win at all costs and an uncanny ability to sell his shifting policies to the public. (File Photo<\/a>: Benjamin Netanyahu – \u05d1\u05e0\u05d9\u05de\u05d9\u05df \u05e0\u05ea\u05e0\u05d9\u05d4\u05d5\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

JERUSALEM \u2014 As Benjamin Netanyahu becomes Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, he is solidifying his place as the country’s greatest political survivor and the most dominant force in Israeli politics in his generation.<\/p>\n

He has persevered through scandals, crises and conflicts, winning election after election even as the country grows more bitterly polarized. His supporters credit him with keeping Israel safe and prosperous, maintaining its Jewish character and boosting its standing internationally.<\/p>\n

His opponents, with equally visceral emotion, claim he has dashed hopes for peace with the Palestinians, torn society apart with vicious attacks on minority Arabs and left-wing opponents, and infused politics with a culture of corruption.<\/p>\n

But as the longevity of his 13-year rule is set to surpass that of Israel’s founding father David Ben-Gurion on July 20, all agree Netanyahu has left a permanent imprint on Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe thinks that he is the right guy in the right place. That he is the one who will save Israel and lead Israel to a safe haven,\u201d said Aviv Bushinsky, a former Netanyahu aide. Israelis think that \u201cthings are good, so why should we change a winning horse,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Just as he is about to cross a milestone, Netanyahu faces perhaps his greatest political challenge yet. After failing to form a parliamentary majority following April elections, the country is holding a repeat vote on Sept. 17. The following month, he faces a hearing with Israel’s attorney general, who has recommended indicting Netanyahu on corruption charges. If formal charges are filed, Netanyahu could be forced to step aside.<\/p>\n

In contrast to his predecessors, the 69-year-old hasn’t left his mark by winning a war or signing a peace accord. He has proudly resisted various peace initiatives and allowed West Bank settlements to flourish. The signature achievements most associated with him, such as combatting Iran’s nuclear program, covertly striking weapons shipments to Israel’s enemies and building a border fence to stop the flow of African migrants, had begun taking shape before he assumed office.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis rule has been characterized by conservatism and hesitancy,\u201d said opposition lawmaker Tamar Zandberg. \u201cIf he is going to be remembered for anything it’s going to be his idleness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu has often said he would like to be remembered as the \u201cprotector of Israel.\u201d But admirers and critics alike say that what sets him apart is his unparalleled political acumen, a ruthless drive to win at all costs and an uncanny ability to sell his shifting policies to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe so deeply believes in himself and what he is doing, and his marketing skills are so amazing that he can argue for one thing and then the opposite with the same conviction. It’s an art form,\u201d said Bushinsky.<\/p>\n

A gifted orator in both English and Hebrew, he was elected for a single term in the late 1990s on a platform of opposing the Oslo accords with the Palestinians. But once in office, he continued implementing them and even met with arch-enemy Yasser Arafat.<\/p>\n

As finance minister in the early 2000s, he cut taxes and rolled back entitlements to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community \u2014 only to reverse course once he returned to power to secure their political backing. He wrote counterterrorism books in which he preached never to negotiate under threat, but as prime minister he released more than 1,000 prisoners in exchange for a single captive Israeli soldier in 2011.<\/p>\n

Despite his tough talk, Netanyahu has shown relative moderation when it comes to using military force. Over the past year, he has resisted calls by hard-line constituents to strike harder against Gaza militants.<\/p>\n

Even after so long in power, Netanyahu has maintained an outsider image, railing at perceived enemies in the media, judiciary and opposition. His tactics have mirrored those of his good friend, President Donald Trump, as well as other right-wing populist leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro \u2014 both of whom he has welcomed to Israel.<\/p>\n

The anti-establishment rhetoric, along with occasional incitement against the country’s Arab minority and the political left, has played well among his base of traditional, working-class voters.<\/p>\n

The son of a historian \u2014 and a keen student of history himself \u2014 Netanyahu already holds the record for being Israel’s youngest elected prime minister and for serving the longest consecutive term.<\/p>\n

Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist at the Haaretz daily and author of a Netanyahu biography, called the prime minister an \u201cincredibly good political strategist\u201d who has presided over a period of prosperity and relative quiet. Netanyahu often boasts of expanding ties with countries that once shunned Israel \u2014 including Arab states that share Israel’s enmity toward Iran \u2014 while rejecting demands for a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want one ideological legacy it’s that he has broken the paradigm that we need to end the occupation or else we will be isolated,\u201d said Pfeffer. \u201cHe has proven that is not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said Netanyahu will be remembered as the one who \u201cburied\u201d the peace process and paved the way to a future apartheid state by deepening Israel’s control over the West Bank, which it captured in the 1967 Mideast war. \u201cI think his legacy will be his success in making sure that any ray of hope to achieve peace based on two states along the 1967 border is blocked,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In confronting President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran in a brazen 2015 speech to Congress, Netanyahu also debunked the conventional wisdom that an Israeli leader could not survive an open clash with an American president. Since Trump’s election in 2016, Netanyahu has enjoyed unprecedented backing, drawing frequent accusations of partisanship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe combination of a very difficult relationship with the Obama administration and the exaggerated embrace of Trump potentially create a rift in the quality of U.S.-Israel relations,\u201d noted Dan Shapiro, Obama’s former ambassador to Israel. \u201cWhen the pendulum swings in the other direction that will also be part of his legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JERUSALEM \u2014 As Benjamin Netanyahu becomes Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, he is solidifying his place as the country’s greatest political …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":210505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54365,16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-instagram","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-aron-heller","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223682,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223681\/revisions\/223682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}