AG百家乐在线官网

A SENSE OF OPTIMISM

In the aftermath of the Second World War and the horrors of the Holocaust, there was an urgency for a Jewish homeland. In 1948, a year before Netanyahu was born, Israel came into being - a small but powerful nation in the heart of the Middle East.

A new country, fighting for its place in the world. Following a contentious vote by the United Nations to partition Palestine, the State of Israel was born.

There was a sense of optimism in the new country but it came at a cost. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced out of their homes.

"Two-thirds of the Palestinian people were physically forced out of their homes or the farms, their businesses or their properties," Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, said.

"My own parents and my own grandparents included."

YOUNG BIBI

Netanyahu, known to family and friends as Bibi, grew up in a country whose existence from the start was contested.

His father, Benzion, was a university lecturer and historian who helped guide the Zionist movement in a more right-wing direction.

He impressed on his sons the idea of Israel being a sovereign state and having a strong military.

But Bibi didn't spend all his childhood in Israel 鈥� his father moved the family to the United States 鈥� a cultural shift that shaped him.

At 18, he left high school and along with his older brother, Yoni, returned to join the military in Israel, where he was part of an elite combat unit, the Sayeret Matkal.

TURNING POINT

In 1972, Netanyahu returned to America to study architecture and management. He got married and found a job, but it wasn't long before something brought him back to Israel.

The "turning point" in his life came, Jonathan Freedland says, in 1976 with the "heroic episode in Israeli mythology, the Entebbe rescue".

On 27 June 1976, a plane was hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Two hundred and forty-eight Jewish/Israeli passengers were held hostage in Entebbe, Uganda.

Israel launched a surprise rescue operation involving its special forces, the Sayeret Matkal. The group used a decoy car to get into the terminal and take out the hijackers in an assault that lasted 30 minutes.

The rescue was led by Benjamin Netanyahu's older brother who was tragically killed during the mission. Yoni, who was hailed as a hero, was the sole military casualty.

POLITICAL AMBITIONS

Netanyahu devoted himself to memorialising his older brother, establishing the Yonatan Institute to sponsor international conferences on terror, and publishing his personal letters.

"Did he do it purposely and strategically? I have no idea," says Dahlia.

"But he certainly was able to benefit from being associated with the great image of Yoni."

His profile in the US began to grow.

"He took what happened with his brother, what his brother sacrificed, and he was able to provide the intellectual foundations for the US, and many Western democracies, in building an approach to fighting terrorism," says Israeli-American journalist Caroline Glick.

Netanyahu began regularly appearing on television, honing his message and building the connection between Israel and the USA. His ability to speak to American audiences in flawless English proved an asset.

"Nobody wants peace more than Israel," Netanyahu told a US talk show. "But the stumbling block for the road to peace is this demand for a PLO state which will mean more war, which will mean more violence in the Middle East."

It's from this platform that Netanyahu eventually became an ambassador to the United Nations. 

By the early 90s, Netanyahu was elected to the Israeli parliament - the Knesset.

A FRAGILE PEACE

In 1993, a historic ceremony took place in Washington DC. President Bill Clinton hoped to foster peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians in an arrangement known as the Oslo Accords.

Named after the Norwegian city where secret negotiations took place, the Oslo Accords were interim agreements aimed at achieving peace in the Middle East. It saw the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships recognise each other for the first time and pledge to end the decades-long conflict.

In front of 3,000 VIPs, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands. It was a huge moment.

"At one level it was a huge step in the right direction because as part of the accord, Arafat and the Palestinians renounced terrorism as a mode of political activity. And ultimately, they said they could accept the permanent existence of the State of Israel," says Rifkind.

By now Netanyahu was a big player in Israeli politics. He was also sceptical about the Oslo Accords.

"I think the whole conception that we would entrust our whole security and the battle against terrorism to Yasser Arafat and the PLO is preposterous from the start," Netanyahu said at the time.

A DIVIDED NATION

There was deep division in Israel over the Accords. Prime Minister Rabin and Netanyahu stood firmly apart on the issue and organised opposing rallies. 

In October 1995, Netanyahu spoke at one of the biggest anti-Oslo events. 

"At the time, there were accusations that Netanyahu led mobs that incited crowds against Rabin," says Jonathan Freedland. "Rabin was depicted on posters, that Netanyahu saw in the crowds, as Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader or even in Nazi uniform."

On the other side were the Israelis in favour of Oslo. They coalesced under the banner of "yes to peace, no to violence".  

An estimated 100,000 Israelis turned out at one event. Those in attendance held hands and sang songs together. To the world it looked like a beautiful moment of solidarity. 

"We know how to make peace, not just to sing about it," Rabin told the crowd at a rally on 4 November 1995. But as the prime minister descended from the stage, there was unease in the air.  

Shots rang out in the night.

A right-wing extremist opposed to Rabin's peace policies had infiltrated the event and opened fire. The leader was hit three times. His death sent shockwaves around the world.

Palestinian diplomat Husam Zomlot said: "That was a bullet not just in the heart of an Israeli prime minister. It was a bullet in the heart of the whole peace process. It was a bullet directed to completely kill any hope for a two-state solution outcome."

'ATMOSPHERE OF HOSTILITY'

The extent of Netanyahu's responsibility for the death of Rabin has been debated for three decades. 

"Netanyahu was the opposition candidate who was very critical of Rabin, who certainly contributed to an atmosphere of hostility," says the British-Israeli journalist, David Horovitz.

But Caroline Glick rejects that interpretation.

"Netanyahu, over and over again, spoke out against the rhetoric that was referring to Yitzhak Rabin as a traitor," she says.

Rabin's deputy Shimon Peres took charge 鈥� however it wasn't long before the country went to the polls to choose a new leader. 

And Netanyahu ran for office for the first time, just as a series of Hamas suicide bombings rocked Israel.

"Netanyahu certainly was in the thick of it," says Dahlia Scheindlin. "Blaming Oslo, blaming Israel's decisions and leading the population to view the Oslo process as having pulled the trigger on those suicide bombs. And he capitalised on it. No question. In order to rally his supporters and get elected." 

Netanyahu was elected with a wafer-thin margin of votes. Less than 1% of the turnout. For the first time, he was leading the Israeli people but the peace process wasn't at the top of his to-do list.

"When he was prime minister, he continued the Accords despite having been so against them," says Dahlia.

OUT OF FAVOUR

The public decided the blame for the lack of progress lay with Netanyahu and voted him out at the next election. In the years that followed, the repeated failure of the peace talks contributed to a surge in violence from frustrated Palestinians. 

"I think when you're desperate... and you have no other channel to which you can actually voice all of the pain and trauma... you turn to violence," says Christine Cheng, a lecturer in war studies at King's College, London.

During that time, Israelis lived in constant fear of suicide bombings on the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They looked once again to Netanyahu, to defend their embattled state. 

Some of the attacks in Israel were carried out by Hamas; a militant group with a political wing. 

The population of Gaza supported Hamas because of their unwavering dedication to the Palestinian cause. They soon became the governing force of the Gaza Strip. 

Hamas was designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel and many countries around the world. As long as they were in control of Gaza, Netanyahu could argue for a strong security presence. 

POWER AND PROTESTS

In 2009, Netanyahu began his longest run at the top of Israeli politics, leading a coalition in the Knesset. Netanyahu went on to win five more elections by organising coalitions in this way. 

The longer Netanyahu was in power, the more problems he had to deal with including corruption charges, which were filed in 2019. 

Amid these charges, Netanyahu backed a plan to limit the Supreme Court's authority and hand power back to the government.

This sparked massive nationwide protests.   

"The Israeli public woke up," says political analyst Dr Toby Greene. "They stood up in huge numbers to protest and to say 'this is not something that we will accept'."

'A CATASTROPHE'

By mid-2023, Netanyahu was preoccupied with internal politics. Then, on 7 October 2023, everything changed. 

Hamas fighters killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 250 men, women and children from their homes, taking them hostage in the Gaza Strip. 

"I think it's important to understand that 7 October was not only a catastrophe for the State of Israel and for the Jewish people, " says Dr Greene.

"It was a personal disaster for Netanyahu himself. This was the collapse of Netanyahu's strategic worldview. And many would argue also, in part, an outcome of his divisive domestic politics." 

For over 15 years, Netanyahu had accepted the status quo, with Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip, but after 7 October he did everything in his power to take them out. 

"The pictures of destruction and devastation from the Hamas strongholds in Gaza are only the beginning," Netanyahu told the nation in the wake of the attacks. "We have eliminated many hundreds of terrorists and we will not stop there. I said that every place from which Hamas operates will be in ruins."

At the command of Netanyahu, the Israel Defence Forces carried out air assaults on Gaza. Followed by a full-scale ground offensive. 

THE COST OF WAR

One of the most significant military manoeuvres was the assault on Rafah. Near the Egyptian border, it was targeted because it was seen as a key Hamas stronghold. 

"The suffering is something that we're concerned with," Netanyahu said. "And Israel has gone to lengths that no other government, and no other army in modern urban warfare, has gone to prevent civilian casualties."

But the death toll continued to rise. Tens of thousands of Gazans were killed as the IDF continued its brutal military operation in the densely populated territory.

Reactions to the brutality of the 7 October attacks and assault on Gaza played out across the world. Protesters in support of both Palestine and Israel took to the streets. 

The International Criminal Court, based in the Netherlands, called for the arrest of the leaders of Hamas, and Netanyahu himself, for alleged crimes against humanity. 

The alleged crimes included "starvation of civilians" and "intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population".

Critics say Netanyahu is too influenced by the extreme right-wing, anti-Arab parties in his coalition government. He must appease the likes of security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who are fiercely against a ceasefire in Gaza. 

Netanyahu's reliance on his far-right coalition partners creates problems for him at home as well as abroad. According to Dr Greene, he is facing "a lot of anger among the Israeli public, and particularly among hostage families, who feel he has not put the return of the hostages at the top of his list of priorities".

ESCALATION

The fragile peace on Israel's northern border with Lebanon shattered after 7 October 鈥� and in August the conflict escalated.

In September, an audacious attack in Lebanon involving exploding pagers was attributed to Israel. Later that month, the leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an airstrike on Netanyahu's orders.  

In October, Israeli tanks gathered by the border with Lebanon, and an IDF ground offensive began.

With major wars now being waged against Hezbollah and Hamas 鈥� this is the most critical period in his leadership. It will define both his political future and his legacy.

Netanyahu is a Sky News documentary which will air on Friday 4 October at 9pm