Binyamin Netanyahu - 1949
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I. Personal and Professional Biography
Binyamin Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 22, 1949. His father, Benzion, was a Zionist. As a child, his family moved to Cheltenham, Pennsylvania.
He went to Cheltenham High School. In June 1967, he left during the end of 12th grade to fight in The Six-Day War. He also took part of a rescue operation to rescue a hijacked plane in Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu became famous when his brother, Yonatan, died in Entebbe, Uganda during a rescue operation of an Air France plane hijacked by PLO terrorists. This drew him into
public life. In the 1980's, he served as Israel's ambassador to The United Nations. In 1988, he was elected to The Knesset, Israel's Parliament. Under Yitzhak Shamir's government,
Netanyahu served as Deputy Foreign Minister and led Israel's delegation to The Madrid Peace Conference in 1991. Following Shamir's loss in the 1992 election to Yitzhak Rabin,
Netanyahu became Chairman of The Likud Party and opposition leader in 1993. On May 29, 1996, he was elected Prime Minister of Israel. He was in a difficult situation due
to his inheritance of the Oslo Accords. He opposed them but felt obligated to follow them because they were an international agreement. Netanyahu's coalition was split. His Right
wanted no dealings with The Palestinians. His Center wanted dealings. In The Wye Accords, he tried to fix the holes of Oslo. He made The Palestinians comply. When they
didn't, he didn't give them any land. This caused his government to fall. His own Right brought his government down because they felt he gave too much away. The two sides
brought it down for opposite reasons. On May 17, 1999, he lost the election to Ehud Barak. Netanyahu then retired from politics for a while. His supporters want him to come back as Prime Minister.
Netanyahu has one daughter from his first marriage. He is currently married to Sara Netanyahu and they have two sons. II. Literary Biography
Netanyahu is the author of several books. The death of his brother Yonatan influenced him as an author. In 1978, he and his brother Ido, edited Yoni's Letters. This is a collection of letters written by Yonatan.
Terror: Challenge and Reaction, (1980) A Place Among The Nations: Israel And The World (1993) III. Links The website of Binyamin Netanyahu's supporters:
Terrorism: How The West Can Win (1986)
International Terrorism: Challenge And Response (1991)
Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic And International Terrorism
(1995)
A Durable Peace: Israel And Its Place Among The Nations (2000 Revised)
IV. Sources
Netanyahu, Binyamin. A Durable Peace: Israel And Its Place Among The Nations. New York: Time Warner Books, 2000.
This essay was submitted by a student of Cheryl Petersohn, a teacher at Harriton High School in Rosemont, Pennsylvania.