Published: 30 April 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Netanyahu was recently indicted on three counts of bribery and breach of trust, yet nevertheless rewarded Likud with a glorious victory in the national elections on April 9. In the coming weeks, he will begin his fifth term as Prime Minister. But what is the secret of this gifted politician, who some (like the title of a recent documentary tracking his career) call “King Bibi”?
Israeli journalist Anshel Pfeffer tries to answer this question in the biography Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu, published last year. Pfeffer began his career in journalism 22 years ago at Jerusalem’s main local newspaper Kol Ha’ir, covering the ultra-Orthodox community.
After a short stint as the newspaper’s editor, he switched to the national daily Haaretz, where he covered education and the Jewish world under editor-in-chief David Landau, who he considers his mentor. At Haaretz, Pfeffer, a native of Manchester, became a “bilingual writer”, writing for the Hebrew and English editions and maintaining a regular column.
In recent years, he has transitioned into military affairs and international politics, and added prominent British publications The Economist, The Jewish Chronicle and The Guardian to his diverse resume.
Pfeffer, 45, will visit Australia next month as a guest of the Sydney Writers’ Festival and the New Israel Fund. He will appear on several panels at the SWF and will also speak about his book at NIF events in Sydney and Melbourne.
The incredible thing we saw in these elections was that Labour’s been replaced by a centrist party, Blue and White. The ascendancy of the Israeli centre – at the expense of the left – can be traced back to the 1977 elections.
Having interviewed Netanyahu’s confidants and delving into archival material, Pfeffer believes Netanyahu’s success is a testament to a change of guards in Israeli society.
“Netanyahu was born in 1949, so his life is simultaneous with the history of Israel,” Pfeffer said. “His father and grandfather symbolise the two generations before Israel’s founding. There was a convenient storyline there. I set out to write a history of Israel through the eyes of the right wing, rather than the traditional histories written through the eyes of the left-wing founders.”
According to Pfeffer, Netanyahu’s greatest success in the last elections was not in strengthening Likud to 35 seats (up from 30 in 2015), but in thrashing Israel’s Labour Party, which won just six seats as opposed to 24 in the previous elections.
“The incredible thing we saw in these elections was that Labour’s been replaced by a centrist party, Blue and White,” he said. The ascendancy of the Israeli centre – at the expense of the left – could be traced back to the 1977 elections, with the creation of Dash, a party led by former chief-of-staff Yigael Yadin.
“The Israeli centrist parties tend to be short-lived, surviving only one or two election cycles. Now, we’ve never had such a significant centrist party as Blue and White, but it may very well only survive one or two election cycles.
“In Britain they say that Margaret Thatcher’s achievement wasn’t just in changing Britain but in changing the Labour Party. Without Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair (a centrist who broke from the old style of Labour leader) wouldn’t have come along,” he said.
Netanyahu’s victory did not symbolise a shift from liberalism to conservatism in Israeli society, he said. First, the Israeli left was never liberal in the Western sense; second, Netanyahu only won just over a quarter of Israeli votes, as did his opponents in Blue and White.
Similarly, Pfeffer argued, Netanyahu managed to shape Israel’s opposition. “He deserves to be recognised as one of the founders of Blue and White, an opposition party shaped around him.”
But Netanyahu’s victory did not symbolise a shift from liberalism to conservatism in Israeli society, he said. First, the Israeli left was never liberal in the Western sense; second, Netanyahu only won just over a quarter of Israeli votes, as did his opponents in Blue and White. In that sense, Netanyahu was no more a reflection of Israeli psyche than his political rivals.
Many accuse Netanyahu of lacking a clear vision for Israel’s future, and particularly for resolving its conflict with the Palestinians. But Pfeffer argues that Netanyahu’s vision is clearly spelt out in his 1993 book A Place Among the Nations, which he has been consistently implementing as leader ever since.
“He wrote the book as leader of the opposition, summarising a decade in which he served as Israel’s main hasbarah (a Hebrew word denoting Israeli advocacy) guy,” Pfeffer said. “When you read the book, you see all the arguments still used by Israeli advocacy groups today. It’s all there.”
The book was a failure because, unbeknown to Netanyahu, as it was being written a group of Israelis and Palestinians were meeting in Oslo to prepare the peace treaty between Israel and the PLO.
“Everything Netanyahu had written about the radical, rejectionist PLO suddenly didn’t make any sense,” he said. That same year, Labour Foreign Minister Shimon Peres rushed to publish his timelier book, The New Middle East.
“Netanyahu was already seen then as the man of yesterday,” Pfeffer said.
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Netanyahu updated his book following his loss to Ehud Barak in 2000, arguing that a durable peace would only allow Palestinian governance on 40 per cent of the West Bank, and not as an independent state.
“If the world thinks Palestinians should have a state, we will wait and not give in,” Pfeffer explained Netanyahu’s thinking. “At the end, the world will see it our way.”
Contrary to conventional wisdom, Netanyahu’s 2009 speech at Bar Ilan University, where he seemed to endorse Palestinian statehood, marked no change in policy, Pfeffer believes. The only concession Netanyahu made at Bar Ilan was calling the diminished Palestinian entity he supported a state.
Now, according to media leaks, US President Donald Trump, in his upcoming peace plan, is about to grant Netanyahu his exact wish regarding the Palestinians. Will Netanyahu push forward and endorse the Trump plan? Pfeffer said very few people knew the true answer.
“He’s been Prime Minister for 10 years and has made no concessions to the Palestinians. But he also hasn’t acted to annex the West Bank to Israel. Following him for 20 years, it seems like he wants to stick to the status quo, and his vision is designed for the undefined future.
“Has the future finally arrived? Very hard to say. We’re at the point where it seems Netanyahu may want to take things to the next stage.”
It may be the Americans, not the Israelis, who will test the waters of West Bank annexation on Netanyahu’s behalf, absolving him of the need to sully his hands by undertaking a controversial political move, Pfeffer speculated.
For Netanyahu, the Palestinians are only a footnote in Israel’s historic drive for regional domination. The Iranian threat and global Islamic terrorism are of much more concern to him.
“Netanyahu always wanted to present Israel’s role in the region as a guarantor of Western stability and progress,” Pfeffer said. “Unlike Shimon Peres, his dream isn’t opening the first Israeli embassy in Riyadh.”
READ MORE
Israelis are not all right-wing. But our leftist parties have lost faith in themselves (Guardian)
YONATAN LEVI: Centrism will not win elections. The Israeli left must find the courage to fight for its vision – voters will respond
ANSHEL PFEFFER’S AUSTRALIAN APPEARANCES
Sydney Writers Festival: May 2, 4
New Israel Fund: May 5 (Sydney) and 12 (Melbourne)
Photo: Anshel Pfeffer (Elhanan Miller)
