Binyamin Netanyahu, leader of the hawkish Likud Party, hopes to complete his political rehabilitation by returning to the prime minister’s office and resuming a post the Israeli public evicted him from in the May 1999 elections.
He won the leadership of the Likud after Premier Ariel Sharon broke away from the party late last year to form his new Kadima faction after being frustrated with Likud hardliners who had sought to undermine his policies in retaliation for his government’s Gaza withdrawal earlier in the summer.
As Likud leader, Netanyahu has been campaigning that he represents the ”true” Likud values, and is the Israeli leader best suited to deal with the challenge posed by a Palestinian Authority led by the Islamic militant Hamas movement.
His supporters also point to his free-market economic reforms, which they say pushed Israel’s economy out of a deep slump: Netanyahu was finance minister until his abrupt August 2005 resignation from the Cabinet in protest of the Gaza withdrawal.
But if the polls are correct, the man once celebrated for his speaking skills has been unable to get his message across this campaign — 80% of Israelis, for example, are unconvinced by his claim that he can eradicate poverty within three years.
His critics also accuse him of ”scare-mongering” over his focus on perceived threats to Israel, and say his stewardship of the economy has widened the gap between rich and poor, fusing a socio-economic time bomb.
Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv on October 21, 1949, the son of a respected history professor. He was educated in Israel and in the United States, returning to
Israel for his army service, which he spent as an officer in an elite commando unit.
He entered local politics in 1988, and won his election to the Knesset on the Likud slate. When the Likud was defeated in the 1992 elections, he challenged and won the leadership of the party.
He scored an amazing come-from-behind victory in the 1996 Israeli elections, defeating Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres by the narrowest of margins.
Three years later, after a premiership which can best be described as controversial, he was voted out of office in favour of Labour Party leader Ehud Barak, who — somewhat ironically — was once his commanding officer in the army commando unit.
Netanyahu took a brief time out from politics, but then began a comeback, serving in the government, first as foreign minister and then as finance minister while never hiding his ambition to return to the top spot. – Sapa-DPA