The last “Mapainik” and the “Iron Wall”: Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian issue 2009-21

Abstract

ABSTRACT The strategy led by Prime Minister Netanyahu during his 12-year rule (2009–21) was not just a military-security strategy but a grand-strategy of national security. Effectively adopting Mapai’s ‘practical Zionism’ strategy rather than Jabotinsky’s ‘political Zionism’, Netanyahu effectively became the last of the ‘Mapainiks’ who knew how to establish and develop a state, and fortify its power and position, by virtue of action and by strengthening the ‘Iron Wall’.