The Influence of Early Childhood Socialization on Political Decision Making in Adulthood: Benyamin Netanyahu’s Potential to Become a Peacemaker

Abstract

This paper examines Benyamin Netanyahu’s potential to reject his current ‘hawkish’ views and to become a peace maker during his fifth (and probably last) term in office as the Prime Minister of Israel. Netanyahu continues to live in the shadow of the legacy of two deceased family members: his older brother Yonatan and his father Benzion. His brother Yonatan was killed in action in 1976 while leading his troops in the renowned counter-terrorism rescue mission ‘Operation Entebbe’. As a result, Yonatan became an Israeli national hero. His father Benzion, who worked as a prominent Israeli historian for decades but was rejected by the Israeli academic and political mainstream due to his ‘hawkish’ views, died in 2012 at the age of 102. It is my assumption that Netanyahu’s political activity up to the present has stemmed in part from his emotional hunger resulting from his need to measure up to the ‘larger than life’ images of his father and brother. The fact that both influential figures are deceased may now enable him to give greater expression to the more pragmatic sides of his personality in the future, and to enter history books – on his own – as a peacemaker.