Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu

by Anshel Pfeffer

Overview

A deeply reported biography of the scandal-plagued Israeli Prime Minister, showing that we cannot understand Israel -- its history, present, and future -- without first understanding the life and worldview of the man who leads it

Benjamin Netanyahu is embroiled in numerous scandals, all of his own making, and may soon be ousted from the office he has held longer than any prior Israeli Prime Minister outside of David Ben Gurion. But Bibi, as he is known by friend and foe alike, is no stranger to controversy. For many in Israel and elsewhere, he is an embarrassment, a threat to democracy, even a precursor to Donald Trump. He nevertheless continues to dominate Israeli public life -- and he may yet survive his current crises, the most challenging of his career. How can we explain Netanyahu's rise, his hold on Israeli politics, and his outsized role on the world's stage?

In Bibi, the Haaretz journalist Anshel Pfeffer argues that we must view Netanyahu as representing the triumph of the underdogs in the Zionist enterprise. Born in 1949, one year after the state of Israel itself, Netanyahu came of age in a nation dominated by liberal, secular Zionists. Yet Netanyahu's grandfather and father bequeathed to him a brand of Zionism integrating Jewish nationalism and religious traditionalism, and he identified with the groups at the margins of Israeli society: right-wing Revisionists, orthodox, Mizrahi Jews, and small-time professionals living in the new towns and cities dotting the Israeli landscape. Netanyahu cultivated each faction individually and then fused them into a coalition that has frequently proven unstoppable in Israeli politics.

Netanyahu is also a child of America, where he spent many years as a young man, and where he learned the techniques of modern political campaigns as well as the necessity of controlling the media cycle. The product of the affluent East Coast Jewish community and the Reagan era, Netanyahu's politics and worldview were formed as much by American Cold War conservatism as by his family's hardline right-wing Zionism.

As Pfeffer demonstrates in this penetrating biography, Netanyahu's influence will endure even if his career soon comes to an end. The Israel he has helped make is a hybrid of ancient phobia and high-tech hope, tribalism and globalism -- just like the man himself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465097821
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	507,073
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Anshel Pfeffer has covered Israeli politics and global affairs for two decades. He is a senior correspondent and columnist for Haaretz and the Israel correspondent for the Economist. He lives in Jerusalem.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Netanyahu's Israel 1

Part 1 Frustrated Lovers of Zion: 1879-1948 7

1 An Orator of the Highest Grace 8

2 Propaganda, Propaganda, and Propaganda 15

3 On the Sidelines of History 31

4 The End of the Great Zionist Dream 38

Part 2 Outsiders in the New State: 1949-1976 47

5 Life Within Sharp Borders 48

6 A Terrible Dislocation 55

7 American Ben, Israeli Bibi 63

8 You Have to Kill Arabs 72

9 I've Reached My Target 90

10 Trying to Save the State 104

Part 3 Breaking the Elite: 1976-1996 115

11 Stop the World! 116

12 Why Aren't You in Uniform? 126

13 Prime Minister in Ten Years' Time 139

14 If He Had a Sense of Humor, He'd Be a 10 151

15 Prime Minister? Of Course Not 163

16 A Crime Unprecedented in the History of Democracy 179

17 A Political Failure? 191

18 Rabin Is "Not a Traitor" 202

19 Good for the Jews 215

Part 4 "Israel's Serial Bungler": 1996-2009 237

20 The Bedrock of Our Existence 238

21 Dragged to Wye 252

22 They. Are. Afraid. 267

23 A Concerned Citizen 280

24 My Own Media 295

25 Threats Are What Work 305

Part 5 Stuck on Top: 2009-2018 311

26 A New Pragmatic Bibi? 312

27 Your Father Wrote History. You Are Making History. 324

28 The Arab Voters Are Moving in Droves 343

29 A Bad Mistake of Historic Proportions 359

30 Nothing Will Happen, Because Nothing Happened 371

Epilogue: Netanyahu's Israel at Seventy 384

Acknowledgments 387

A Note on Sources 389

Notes 391

Index 407

Editorial Reviews

…insightful and readable…Pfeffer is one of the smartest and most prolific of Israel's younger generation of journalists. His work for Haaretz reflects that paper's liberal bent, instinctively opposed to Netanyahu and much of what he represents. It is hard to imagine that this author ever voted for his subject. Bibi, obsessed by hostile "left-wing" media, complained pre-emptively that this biography would be a "cartoon." It is not: It fleshes out a superficially familiar and invariably quotable figure with a wealth of background information and analysis that provide necessary and, of course, often highly critical context. Yet it is also fair…This book is a necessary contribution to understanding a high-profile and internationally contentious figure and the fractured country he has led for so long.

The New York Times Book Review - Ian Black

"Superbly timed...insightful...Pfeffer is one of the smartest and most prolific of Israel's younger generation of journalists...Bibi, obsessed by hostile 'left-wing media,' complained preemptively that this biography would be a cartoon. It is not: it fleshes out a superficially familiar and invariably quotable figure with a wealth of background information and analysis that provide necessary and, of course, often highly critical context...This book is a necessary contribution to understanding a high-profile and internationally contentious figure and the fractured country he has led for so long."—Ian Black, New York Times

"[Pfeffer is] one of Israel's best informed writers...[Bibi is] a must read for everyone who is interested in the undercurrents of today's Israeli society"—Tom Segev, Economist

"Readers who are rooting either for or against Netanyahu will find that Pfeffer's reporting quenches their thirst for the complete picture of his rise to power."—Commentary

"A perceptive history of a beleaguered nation and one deeply flawed leader."—Kirkus Reviews

"Weaving together stories from Netanyahu's time in America and Israel, and from his family history, military service, and political career, Anshel Pfeffer's fascinating and insightful Bibi paints a portrait of the indomitable outsider who became Israel's three-time prime minister. Pfeffer's riveting account illuminates the ways in which the man leading Israel today is both a product and a beneficiary of bitter divides that have shaped the nation's politics from its earliest days."—Tamara Cofman Wittes, Senior Fellow in Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution

"In a career that could yet make him the longest serving Prime Minister in Israel's history, Benjamin Netanyahu turned out to be much more than the temporary speed bump in Israeli politics his critics once imagined. In this lively and trenchant biography, Anshel Pfeffer explains why and how Bibi came to dominate and embody the changing face of the remarkable and divided nation he still leads."—Aaron David Miller, Vice-President and Middle East Program Director at the Woodrow Wilson Center

"Certain to elicit both consternation and praise, Anshel Pfeffer's Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu is a fascinating exploration of the complex ideological and familial foundations that continue to shape the thinking and governing of the man who may soon become Israel's longest serving Prime Minster. This is a book that will lead both Bibi's friends as well as his foes to see him a new—and infinitely more nuanced—light."—Daniel Gordis, author of Israel:A Concise History of a Nation Reborn

"Anshel Pfeffer has done something hard to do. He's given us an understanding, even compassionate, portrait of Benjamin Netanyahu—the family, the formative experiences, the logic of his belligerent ideology—while keeping his distance from Netanyahu's stances and exposing many of the unpleasant truths that lie beneath the surface Netanyahu works so hard to polish. Not coincidentally, Pfeffer has also given us a short-hand account of Israel's political history. Pfeffer is essential reading in Haaretz. His book gives Western readers some idea why."—Bernard Avishai, author of TheHebrew Republic

From the Publisher

2018-03-03
An unsparing examination of the Israeli prime minister's rise to power.Journalist Pfeffer, Israeli correspondent for the Economist and senior correspondent for Haaretz, makes his literary debut with a biting portrait of Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (b. 1949), an ambitious politician whose racist, right-wing views have shaped "a deeply fractured Israeli society, living behind walls." The son of historian Benzion Netanyahu and brother of fallen soldier Jonathan, Bibi embraced the "family mythology" that "constantly tried to place itself at the center of the Zionist narrative." The author stresses the importance of Bibi's American experience, which began in high school, when his father took an academic position in Pennsylvania. Although disdaining "the liberal-leaning, Democrat-voting American Jews" he met, he appreciated American capitalism and the style of American political campaigns. In 1981, as deputy chief of mission at Israel's Washington embassy, Netanyahu set out to become a media personality. "Ever a perfectionist," Pfeffer writes, "he worked assiduously on his televisual skills, taking lessons from professional coaches" and rehearsing his delivery "of terse and soundbite-heavy sentences." Three years later, he was appointed ambassador to the U.N., where he "became a star of the air waves." In 1996, with no political experience, he won a slim victory over Shimon Peres by inflaming Israel's fear of its Arab neighbors. Besides coveting power, Netanyahu acquired a taste for luxury, extravagances that led to financial scandals later in his career. As he examines his subject's fraught relationships with Israeli politicians and U.S. presidents, Pfeffer portrays Bibi as an arrogant, polarizing figure, incapable of compromise and, like Donald Trump, "lacking in introspection." Netanyahu has never wavered in his bleak view of history, in which the Jewish homeland was threatened by "the genocidal urge of the Arab nations to destroy the Jewish presence." He opposed any move to relinquish control of the West Bank and Golan Heights, conceding only "limited autonomy" to Palestinians living in those areas.A perceptive history of a beleaguered nation and one deeply flawed leader.

Kirkus Reviews