Exit King Bibi, untrustworthy leader with an inflated sense of his right to rule

EETTA PRINCE-GIBSON: Despite the Abraham Accords, an economic boom and the vaccine rollout, he will be most remembered for subordinating the good of the country to his own political needs

FOR THE FIRST TIME in over 12 years, Benjamin ("Bibi") Netanyahu is no longer prime minister and he has taken his place in the rows of the opposition in Israel's Knesset.

His trajectory to power was short and his fall from power has been long and painful for him and the country. Netanyahu first became well-known on the Israeli domestic political scene in the late 1980s, and, by 1992, had become leader of the Likud Party.

He was young and bright, with a commanding, telegenic presence and keen political acumen.  His strategic policies were clearly articulated, and he dazzled with Churchillian, statesman-like ambitions.  By 1996, he was Israel's youngest-ever prime minister. 

Yet even in those early stages of his career, he showed some of the qualities that would make him one of Israel's most intriguing and polarising political figures.  At times, his brilliant political abilities seemed to produce little more than spin; too often, his strategy seemed to be based on cynicism rather than vision. He preferred the council of a small group of men, many of them American-born, to working with his own cabinet ministers and official advisers.

And in leading the opposition to the Oslo Accords in 1995, he showed that he was willing to cross previously respected red lines, putting his rhetorical skills in the service of incitement and polarisation if it suited his political needs.

By 2016, criminal investigations against Netanyahu for corruption had been made public, and in early 2020, Netanyahu became the first Israeli prime minister to face indictment while in office. In his public appearances, he became increasingly angry and at times depressed, and often, his sole strategy appeared to be survival.