Bibi

November 7, 2022
This self-serving autobiography by former Israeli prime minister Netanyahu (A Durable Peace) begins with a flashback to his time in a special unit of the Israeli Defense Forces, recounting a 1972 raid on a plane held by Palestinian terrorists, then moves more or less chronologically through his life and career. Born in Israel in 1949, Netanyahu served in the military during the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War before completing his education at MIT. Recounting his two terms as prime minister (1996–1999 and 2009–2021), Netanyahu dismisses serious allegations out of hand, including the 2019 corruption charges that led to his indictment and for which he is currently on trial. He also rejects any responsibility for the violent rhetoric that contributed to then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination in 1995, claiming that those charges were ginned up by “my antagonists in the press and on the political left.” Elsewhere, the amount of detail about Netanyahu’s policies, including welfare reforms related to per-child allowances, is more than most non-Israelis will find interesting. There’s little newsworthy here (Netanyahu alleges without evidence that President Obama gave Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas a “secret commitment to establish a full-fledged Palestinian state before he left office”), and readers looking for insights into Netanyahu’s two marriages and other personal matters won’t find them. This superficial account won’t sway Netanyahu’s critics.

October 28, 2022

Netanyahu, age 73 and the former longest-serving prime minister and current Israeli political leader of the opposition, is intent on setting the historical record straight on his life, controversial career, and place in the history of Israel. Will Durant and Winston Churchill are his models for both writing and making history, and this book is designed to answer the narratives of his political opponents and those he often refers to as "the Israeli left-wing press." The book begins with his depiction of the idyllic Jerusalem childhood shared with older brother Yonatan under the watchful eyes of his parents. His father was a Jewish history scholar and Zionist activist, and he describes his mother as intelligent and empathetic. Netanyahu traces his experiences in military and public service, while dismissing those who opposed or betrayed him over the decades. Along the way, he touches on his relationships with great world leaders. As with all autobiographies, readers must consider the source, but this one offers fascinating insights into the history, politics, and links of Israel and the United States since World War II. VERDICT This books ranks of profound importance to readers interested in the recent history of the Middle East.--Joel Neuberg

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2022
Long-winded memoir from the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history. Two themes run throughout the monotonous narrative: Netanyahu's admiration for his older brother, Yoni, who was killed during the special operations raid to free hostages taken by terrorists at Entebbe Airport in 1976, and the constant necessity of Israel to defend itself against aggressors. Born in Tel Aviv in 1949 to secular Jews with deep Zionist family ties, Bibi, as he was called, lived in various places in the U.S., including a stint as a student of architecture at MIT, but the excitement over the Six-Day War in 1967 brought Bibi swiftly home to start his military training. Yoni's untimely death inspired his work in founding The Jonathan Institute, an organization against international terrorism, through which he would first meet many of the conservative intellectuals who supported his later political campaigns. From businessman to appointed "deputy chief of mission" in Israel's embassy in Washington, D.C., Bibi made his mark as a public communicator of Israel's point of view. "I tried to speak my mind, speak my heart, and above all speak plainly," he writes in characteristically flat fashion. After a few years as a U.N. ambassador, the author ascended the ladder in the Likud Party, and he narrowly beat Shimon Peres for the position of prime minister in 1996, when he was just 46. Beginning in 2003, when he became finance minister, his "free market revolution"--privatization, cutting welfare, and crushing unions--picked up steam. Reelected as prime minister in 2009, he doubled down against Iran's nuclear capabilities and in destroying terrorist networks, especially Hamas. He famously came to loggerheads with Barack Obama, while with Donald Trump, he was able to see several "missions accomplished"--e.g., normalized relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and the moving of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Now the leader of the opposition party again, Netanyahu seems to be scheming for a return to power. Hardly a charm offensive, this is a straightforward account and defense of the author's hard-line positions.

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