How Netanyahu's American influence wavered

Benjamin Netanyahu — nickname ‘Bibi’ — was born on October 21, 1949, in Tel Aviv, but his family then lived in Jerusalem. They moved to Philadelphia, went back to Israel, then to the States again, but Netanyahu entered military service in Israel like all 18-year-old men. He served in the elite intelligence-gathering, counter-terrorism and hostage rescue unit Sayeret Matkal.

It was 20 years later that he joined the Likud party. Netanyahu went to MIT in the US, for architecture and business management, and studied political science at Harvard. He worked as a consultant in Boston.

In 1978, back in Israel, he ran an anti-terrorism NGO and became a marketing director in Jerusalem. Connecting with politicians, he was appointed Israel’s ambassador to the UN from 1984-88.

Elected to the Knesset, Netanyahu moved into strategic peace talks as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, was voted Likud party chairman in 1993, leading the opposition till he won the prime minister’s post in 1996, now