Benjamin Netanyahu: Battling the World

Abstract

A PLO state on the West Bank would be like a hand poised to strangle Israel’s vital artery along the sea . – Benjamin Netanyahu, 1993 Who are we, they ask, to resist the entire world? That it is sometimes – and in the case of Israel, often – necessary to dissent from and resist prevailing opinion seldom crosses their minds . – Benjamin Netanyahu, 2000 Jerusalem Isn’t a Settlement, It’s Our Capital – Benjaming Netanyahu, 2011 Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving prime minister since David Ben-Gurion, has been an enigma to many observers. He was prime minister from 1996 to 1999, from March 2009 to January 2013, and after receiving the most votes in January 2013, formed his third government in March 2013. Some argue that he is a hard-line ideologue representing the Revisionist Zionist roots of the Likud Party who needs to be replaced if peace is to be secured. Others insist that he is an opportunist who has no deeply held beliefs, and therefore will make a peace agreement if he believes it will keep him in office. Netanyahu’s actions over time underscore this enigma, as he has swerved between maintaining hard-line positions and taking small steps toward compromise, negotiation, and peace. He has, on the one hand, vehemently opposed the Oslo Accords since their inception. On the other hand, during the 1996 campaign to become prime minister, he argued that he would abide by the agreements if the Palestinians honored their commitments. After becoming prime minister, though, he undermined the Oslo process by slowing it down and minimizing its effects. Although not ceding territory is a central part of Netanyahu’s ideology, he granted additional land and jurisdiction to the Palestinians in the Hebron and Wye Agreements in order to improve his chances of getting elected again in 1999. Most of the withdrawals agreed to at Wye, however, were not implemented. This pattern continued through Netanyahu’s second term in office: in June 2009, under intense pressure from the United States, Netanyahu publicly agreed in principle to something he had rejected his entire life – the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel under certain conditions.