The Netanyahu Years

by Ben Caspit, Ora Cummings (Translator)

Overview

Benjamin Netanyahu is currently serving his fourth term in office as Prime Minister of Israel, the longest serving Prime Minister in the country’s history. Now Israeli journalist Ben Caspit puts Netanyahu’s life under a magnifying glass, focusing on his last two terms in office.

Caspit covers a wide swath of topics, including Netanyahu’s policies, his political struggles, and his fight against the Iranian nuclear program, and zeroes in on Netanyahu’s love/hate relationship with the American administration, America’s Jews, and his alliances with American business magnates.

A timely and important book, The Netanyahu Years is a primer for anyone looking to understand this world leader.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250087058
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/11/2017
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

BEN CASPIT is a senior columnist for the leading Israeli daily, Ma’ariv, and a regular contributor to its weekend supplement. For almost thirty years, he has been a highly respected commentator on politics, diplomacy, military affairs, and the peace process. Caspit has anchored various television news programs and radio broadcasts for the past 15 years. He lives in Israel. Ben is the author of Netanyahu: The Road to Power and The Netanyahu Years.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Biography 1

Part 2 Dangerous Relations 253

Part 3 Iran, Iran, Iran 363

Part 4 The Palestine Issue 433

Epilogue 489

Editorial Reviews

"A must-read for anyone eager to learn about one of Israel’s longest-standing political figures.” —Atlanta Jewish Times

"Whether you revile or revere Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, you’ll know him better after reading Ben Caspit’s smooth, detailed political biography of Israel’s longest continuously serving prime minister." —American Jewish World

"The Netanyahu Years is a passionate, impressionistic account of this divisive, oddly compelling world leader...Caspit writes that history will hand down its verdict on Netanyahu in its own time; this book will be indispensable in that process." —Christian Science Monitor

From the Publisher

2017-05-02
A biography of the steely Israeli prime minister that underscores his relentless, seemingly emotionless competitive drive.As a translation from the Hebrew, this account of Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu's career is nicely fluent. Longtime Israeli journalist and newscaster Caspit, a senior columnist for Ma'ariv, Israeli's leading daily, is unafraid of criticizing the extreme right-wing views and single-minded ambition of this problematic public figure. Several themes emerge from the author's chronicle of Netanyahu's formative years in Jerusalem. One of the most prominent is the extreme reverence his family had to pay to his studious, humorless father, Benzion, a scholar inculcated in the Revisionist Zionist ideology: right-wing, leaning toward the American Republicans, and uncompromising toward Palestinians, all of which eventually formed the backbone of the Likud Party and encapsulated his son's own views. Caspit touchingly emphasizes Netanyahu's devotion to his older brother, Yoni, a shining, handsome role model and elite Israel Defense Forces commando like Bibi who was cut down tragically during the Entebbe Operation in 1976. Perhaps the most important lifelong influence on Netanyahu was his early education in America (MIT and Harvard), which taught him to speak flawless English and, as his career in politics grew, court rich American Jews into bankrolling rightist Jewish interests and his own campaigns. With his good looks and pedigree, he became the "perfect poster boy for the Jewish community" and gradually worked his way into the Israeli embassy and then head of the Likud Party. He would be elected prime minister four times (1996, 2006, 2013, 2015), matching David Ben-Gurion's record. Caspit focuses on Netanyahu's ongoing stormy relationship with Washington, D.C., as he has firmly maintained that "Israel and America were equal players in the international arena" and seemed mystified whenever this was challenged—e.g., from President Barack Obama over Iran nuclear concessions. A highly readable portrait of an enigmatic politician.

Kirkus Reviews