Where Benjamin Netanyahu appears
196 total
…gn, our determination to broaden our support beyond Labor’s heartland. The polls closed at 10 o’clock. I knew Bibi would be staring at the same Channel One newscast as I was, each of us ready to put the best spin on things, especially if th...
…t the hotel podium before going to Rabin Square, I had to call for quiet when I mentioned the phone call from Bibi. “No,” I said, raising my voice to be heard above the boos, “we will not boo an incumbent Prime Minister of Israel... A short...
…opple the government,” he told me. “But only you know whether we’re ready — whether you ’re ready — to defeat Bibi in an election.” “I’m ready,” I said. “We are going to win.” Few agreed. In fact, there had been times during my first year-a...
ng the lines of attack Shimon would face. But as I watched, I worried that even he couldn’t replicate one of Bibi’s key advantages. During his time at the embassy in Washington, and especially as UN ambassador, Bibi had become a frequent pr...
…mall group of campaign experts Peres had asked me to assemble alongside Ramon’s main team. Rather than ignore Bibi, I was going to use my position as his former commander in Sayeret Matkal, someone who knew him well, to explain why Peres sh...
…ns clear we’d agree on a unity government. To my amusement, if not altogether to my surprise, I got word that Bibi was putting out separate political feelers to Shimon Peres. But before long, it became clear there was a specific political m...
…ould be a waste of time to stay in the cabinet if it was going to bring the peace process to a halt. I warned Bibi, both in the Knesset and in a series of speeches, about the alternative on the Palestinian side if those who wanted a negotia...
…re than religious observance, but they were instinctively inclined to support candidates — Rabin in 1992, and Bibi the last time around — who they felt were likely to take a tough line in any peace negotiations with the Arabs. I was never g...
…on.” I looked back at him and said, “Aha!” Bibi understood and we both laughed. Over the years I have advised Netanyahu on a variety of issues during his tenure as Prime Minister and between his terms. I do not share all of his political an...
4.2.12 WC: 191694 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Among the public figures I have counseled is Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I had met Bibi when he was a student in Cambridge in the early 1970’s. We got to know each other wh...
… hid in a tangle of bushes about halfway along the road which climbed up toward the border ridge. I stationed Bibi and his team at the bottom of the road, equipped with Uzis and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. We waited, knowing that we...
…s successor. We could, of course, pursue the Oslo process along its current, meandering path. But even though Bibi had slowed it down, that would inevitably mean Israel handing back yet more West Bank land to Arafat — in return for familiar...
…ould be confident of lining up the necessary votes among the growing number of others who were also convinced Bibi should go. After the Wye summit agreement, I put all that on hold. But now that Bibi had shifted into reverse, I told Haim to...
…o begin in early November, but he kept putting off a vote in the cabinet. When the vote came, on November 11, Bibi squeaked through by a margin of 8 to 4, but with five abstentions. That meant less than half of his ministers had voted for i...
…ot easy. At one point, we announced a call-up of reserves. We hinted at a possible ground incursion. But both Bibi and I knew we were going to avoid that if at all possible, and we did. Though there were inevitable civilian casualties, most...
…s and weapons stores, but also a number of apartment complexes being used by Hamas as bases or firing points. Bibi rightly pointed out that we were forced to fight a fundamentally asymmetric battle. While Israel began with the principle of...
…And we’ll find a way of dealing with the new reality.” Yet “fortress Israel” was irresistibly comfortable for Bibi politically. I now had to accept that, while he and I had known each other for more than half-a-century, nothing I could do o...
a military strike, I raised head-on my objections to the skewed image Bibi was promoting of our country. It wasn’t just inaccurate, I said. Especially when his rhetoric was in full flight, and he compared the prospect of a nuclear Iran to a...
…f a President who neither understood nor fundamentally supported us. In day-to-day policy terms, this allowed Bibi to insist we couldn’t risk serious engagement with the Palestinians. On domestic issues as well, like the widening gap betwee...
… wishes of President Obama. I felt this even more strongly when, a few weeks later, I was contacted by one of Bibi’s close political allies. He sounded me out on the possibility of launching our strike against Iran after the joint exercise:...
