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Benjamin Netanyahu family. Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu- Israeli statesman and politician. Leader of the Likud party (1993−1999 and since 2005). Benjamin Netanyahu was the Prime Minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999. Since 2009, Netanyahu is again the Prime Minister of Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu also served as Israel's finance minister three times.
Benjamin Netanyahu's Early Life and Education
Father - Benzion Netanyahu(Mileikovsky) - the son of immigrants from Belarus, a historian by training, a professor. Netanyahu's biography says his father was the personal secretary of the writer and Zionist ideologist Zeev Jabotinsky.
Mother - Tsilya Netanyahu(Segal) - born in 1912 in Petah Tikva (Ottoman Palestine, now Israel).
Binyamin's older brother Jonathan Netanyahu- national hero of Israel. He died during Operation Entebbe to free Israeli hostages.
Younger brother - Ido Netanyahu- radiologist and writer.
Netanyahu's paternal grandfather - Netan(Netanyahu) Mileikovsky- was a rabbi in Russia.
In the late 50s and 60s of the last century, the Netanyahu family alternately lived in Israel and in the United States. My father taught history. Benjamin completed high school in the United States. In 1967, Netanyahu returned to Israel. Binyamin was supposed to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. During his service, Netanyahu participated in several military operations on foreign soil. Even then, there was room for serious trials in the politician’s biography. Benjamin Netanyahu was wounded twice, including during the operation to free a Sabena plane hijacked by Palestinian terrorists on May 9, 1972.
After completing his military service with the rank of captain, Benjamin returned to the United States in 1972 to pursue higher education. Benjamin Netanyahu entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to major in architecture. But at the beginning of the Yom Kippur War (1973), Benjamin Netanyahu interrupted his studies and took part in hostilities in the Suez Canal area and the Golan Heights.
In 1975, Benjamin received his bachelor's degree. Next, Benjamin Netanyahu continued his studies and in 1977 received a master's degree in management from MIT Sloan. While working for the Boston Consulting Group, Netanyahu simultaneously studied political science at Harvard University and MIT.
Benjamin Netanyahu's political career
Benjamin Netanyahu did not stay in the USA. In 1977 he returned to Israel. Benjamin closely monitored the situation in the country; he was concerned about the unstable political situation in Israel. And during this period, Netanyahu created the “Institute of Anti-Terrorism named after Y. Netanyahu”, and this is where his biography as a politician began.
Benjamin Netanyahu devoted a lot of time to international conferences on the fight against terror. New acquaintances appeared in the person of famous Israeli politicians. In 1982, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Moshe Arens appointed Netanyahu as his deputy. Benjamin Netanyahu began to write political articles and books in which he shared his views on the situation in Israel. They were printed in the USA, France and, of course, in Israel.
Netanyahu was a member of the first Israeli delegation to strategic talks with the United States in 1983.
In 1984, Benjamin Netanyahu served as ambassador to the UN. Benjamin remained in this position until 1988. From 1988 to 1990, Netanyahu served as deputy foreign minister, and then he was appointed minister in the Ministry of the Head of Government (1990−1992).
In 1993, Benjamin Netanyahu was elected leader of the Likud party and became the head of the opposition.
It was only in 1996 that direct elections for a prime minister were held for the first time in Israeli history. Of the two candidates (Binyamin Netanyahu and Shimon Peres) Netanyahu won. Benjamin Netanyahu's election campaign was run by an American political strategist Arthur Finkelstein. His style was edgy and unusual for Israel.
Netanyahu became the youngest prime minister in Israeli history. Benjamin Netanyahu began by forming a coalition government. He attracted religious parties (Shas, Yahadut HaTorah) to this, since his Likud party did not gain a majority in the Knesset. The work was difficult - the leaders of religious parties demanded that the young prime minister not cede territories and exempt religious Jews from military service. But Netanyahu said that Israel will comply with previously signed agreements, including the Oslo agreements.
Immediately after the formation of the government, Benjamin Netanyahu proved in word and deed that he would continue the peace process. On November 11, 1997, in Hebron, Netanyahu met with the Chairman of the Palestinian National Authority Yasser Arafat. The main result of the meeting was the transfer of 97% of the territory of Hebron to the Arabs. The remaining 3% of the city (in the immediate vicinity of the Cave of the Forefathers), although it remained accessible to the Israelis, was also declared a territory of Arab residence or, more precisely, mixed (in 24-hour danger) residence of Arabs and Jews.
During his reign, Benjamin Netanyahu supported a market economy and free enterprise, and as part of this policy, he began changing the taxation system and redistributing government benefits.
Scandals with Benjamin Netanyahu
A major scandal on the Israeli political scene was the appointment of Israel's Attorney General Roni Bar-On, who was considered a low-class lawyer, allegedly appointed only due to his political connections. Bar-On remained at his post for less than a day.
Another scandal with Netanyahu was the failure of the Mossad to eliminate one of the prominent figures in the Hamas movement. Khaled Mashaal. In addition to deteriorating relations with Jordan, relations with Canada also deteriorated, as Israeli special agents entered Jordan using Canadian passports.
The construction of the Jewish neighborhood of Har Homa in southern Jerusalem has also been criticized. Yasser Arafat said he will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu until construction stops. This led to a halt in peace negotiations.
Leaving and continuing a political career
Netanyahu lost early elections in 1999 Ehud Barak and announced his retirement from politics.
In total, Benjamin Netanyahu served as Israel's Minister of Finance 3 times. He resigned from this post on August 9, 2005 in protest against the withdrawal of Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip. In December 2005, Netanyahu again became the leader of the opposition in the Knesset.
In 2007, Benjamin Netanyahu won 73% of the vote in the internal elections of the Likud party.
In 2009, when a new government was being formed in Israel, the country was visited by Hillary Clinton. Clinton noted that "the United States will work with any government that represents the democratic will of the people of Israel."
In 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu again became Prime Minister of Israel. Same year Barack Obama demanded that the new government resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict within 2 years. On June 21, 2009, Obama proposed his plan for a Middle East settlement. Netanyahu expressed agreement to the creation of a Palestinian state with limited rights. There were also conditions under which the Palestinians must recognize Israel as the national home of the Jewish people, as well as receive guarantees of Israeli security, including international ones.
Benjamin Netanyahu also met several times with the American special envoy for peace in the Middle East. George Mitchell, which called on Israel for new negotiations, despite the Palestinians' refusal to resume them and the negative reaction of Israeli society in response to the terrorist attacks.
Is Jerusalem the capital of Israel?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reaction to the US President's statement Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was expected. He called Trump's decision "courageous and just" and promised to work with the United States president to achieve peace with Palestine and other neighbors. He also called on other countries to follow the US example and move their diplomatic missions to Jerusalem.
And yet, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has introduced an unspoken ban on government members from speaking publicly about US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the state. The Minister for Jerusalem Affairs and National Heritage told reporters about this ban. Zeev Elkin, the Nation News news agency reported.
Personal life of Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu has been married three times. First wife Miriam Weizman, whom he met in Boston, gave birth to his daughter Noah.
In 1982, Benjamin married for the second time to Fleur Cates.
In 1991, Netanyahu married the daughter of a famous Israeli educator. Shmuel Ben-Artzi- Sarah. Binyamin's Wikipedia biography states that Sarah was a flight attendant for El Al on a flight to New York when they met. Netanyahu's third wife was born in 1958, received her education as a psychologist in 1984, and defended her master's degree in 1996.
In his third marriage, Netanyahu has two sons - Yair and Avner.
In 1993, Benjamin Netanyahu admitted on air that in his personal life there was a relationship with Ruth Bar, his public relations advisor. Netanyahu said he was being blackmailed with a recording of his sex with Ruth if he did not leave politics. Benjamin Netanyahu and Sarah survived this difficult moment in their personal lives, their marriage survived.
At the same time, in 1996, the news reported about another politician’s mistress, allegedly an Italian woman had been present in Netanyahu’s personal life for 20 years Katherine Price-Mondadori. Benjamin Netanyahu this time was outraged by the invasion of privacy, again accusing political rivals of looking for dirt. At the same time, in Israel they are calm about scandals of this kind.
In the same time Sarah Netanyahu closely monitors negative news about herself, and has twice won libel cases from local publications. Sarah also filed a lawsuit against one of the TV channels, which reported about the large expenses of Netanyahu’s wife in London on luxury goods.
In January 2010, a Netanyahu family housewife sued Sarah, the woman complained of wage withholding, unfair working conditions and insults. In 2014, a similar lawsuit was filed by the family’s ex-bodyguard. In February 2016, a Jerusalem court sentenced Sara Netanyahu to a fine of 170 thousand shekels for this lawsuit.
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Excerpt characterizing Netanyahu, Benjamin
- Why are you walking around like a homeless person? - her mother told her. - What do you want?
“I need it... now, this very minute, I need it,” said Natasha, her eyes sparkling and not smiling. – The Countess raised her head and looked intently at her daughter.
- Don't look at me. Mom, don't look, I'm going to cry now.
“Sit down, sit with me,” said the countess.
- Mom, I need it. Why am I disappearing like this, mom?...” Her voice broke off, tears flowed from her eyes, and in order to hide them, she quickly turned and left the room. She went into the sofa room, stood there, thought, and went to the girls’ room. There, the old maid was grumbling at a young girl who had come running out of breath from the cold from the yard.
“He will play something,” said the old woman. - For all the time.
“Let her in, Kondratievna,” said Natasha. - Go, Mavrusha, go.
And letting go of Mavrusha, Natasha went through the hall to the hallway. An old man and two young footmen were playing cards. They interrupted the game and stood up as the young lady entered. “What should I do with them?” thought Natasha. - Yes, Nikita, please go... where should I send him? - Yes, go to the yard and please bring the rooster; yes, and you, Misha, bring some oats.
- Would you like some oats? – Misha said cheerfully and willingly.
“Go, go quickly,” the old man confirmed.
- Fyodor, get me some chalk.
Passing by the buffet, she ordered the samovar to be served, although it was not the right time.
The barman Fok was the most angry person in the whole house. Natasha loved to try her power over him. He didn't believe her and went to ask if it was true?
- This young lady! - said Foka, feigning a frown at Natasha.
No one in the house sent away as many people and gave them as much work as Natasha. She could not see people indifferently, so as not to send them somewhere. She seemed to be trying to see if one of them would get angry or pout with her, but people didn’t like to carry out anyone’s orders as much as Natasha’s. “What should I do? Where should I go? Natasha thought, walking slowly down the corridor.
- Nastasya Ivanovna, what will be born from me? - she asked the jester, who was walking towards her in his short coat.
“You give rise to fleas, dragonflies, and blacksmiths,” answered the jester.
- My God, my God, it’s all the same. Oh, where should I go? What should I do with myself? “And she quickly, stamping her feet, ran up the stairs to Vogel, who lived with his wife on the top floor. Vogel had two governesses sitting at his place, and there were plates of raisins, walnuts and almonds on the table. The governesses were talking about where it was cheaper to live, in Moscow or Odessa. Natasha sat down, listened to their conversation with a serious, thoughtful face, and stood up. “The island of Madagascar,” she said. “Ma da gas kar,” she repeated each syllable clearly and, without answering m me Schoss’s questions about what she was saying, left the room. Petya, her brother, was also upstairs: he and his uncle were arranging fireworks, which they intended to set off at night. - Peter! Petka! - she shouted to him, - take me down. s - Petya ran up to her and offered her his back. She jumped on him, clasping his neck with her arms, and he jumped and ran with her. “No, no, it’s the island of Madagascar,” she said and, jumping off, went down.
As if having walked around her kingdom, tested her power and made sure that everyone was submissive, but that it was still boring, Natasha went into the hall, took the guitar, sat down in a dark corner behind the cabinet and began plucking the strings in the bass, making a phrase that she remembered from one opera heard in St. Petersburg together with Prince Andrei. For outside listeners, something came out of her guitar that had no meaning, but in her imagination, because of these sounds, a whole series of memories were resurrected. She sat behind the cupboard, her eyes fixed on the strip of light falling from the pantry door, listened to herself and remembered. She was in a state of memory.
Sonya walked across the hall to the buffet with a glass. Natasha looked at her, at the crack in the pantry door, and it seemed to her that she remembered that light was falling through the crack from the pantry door and that Sonya walked through with a glass. “Yes, and it was exactly the same,” thought Natasha. - Sonya, what is this? – Natasha shouted, fingering the thick string.
- Oh, you’re here! - Sonya said, shuddering, and came up and listened. - Don't know. Storm? – she said timidly, afraid of making a mistake.
“Well, in exactly the same way she shuddered, in the same way she came up and smiled timidly then, when it was already happening,” Natasha thought, “and in the same way... I thought that something was missing in her.”
- No, this is the choir from the Water-bearer, do you hear! – And Natasha finished singing the choir’s tune to make it clear to Sonya.
-Where did you go? – Natasha asked.
- Change the water in the glass. I'll finish the pattern now.
“You’re always busy, but I can’t do it,” said Natasha. -Where is Nikolai?
- He seems to be sleeping.
“Sonya, go wake him up,” said Natasha. - Tell him that I call him to sing. “She sat and thought about what it meant, that it all happened, and, without resolving this question and not at all regretting it, again in her imagination she was transported to the time when she was with him, and he looked with loving eyes looked at her.
“Oh, I wish he would come soon. I'm so afraid that this won't happen! And most importantly: I'm getting old, that's what! What is now in me will no longer exist. Or maybe he’ll come today, he’ll come now. Maybe he came and is sitting there in the living room. Maybe he arrived yesterday and I forgot.” She stood up, put down the guitar and went into the living room. All the household, teachers, governesses and guests were already sitting at the tea table. People stood around the table, but Prince Andrei was not there, and life was still the same.
“Oh, here she is,” said Ilya Andreich, seeing Natasha enter. - Well, sit down with me. “But Natasha stopped next to her mother, looking around, as if she was looking for something.
- Mother! - she said. “Give it to me, give it to me, mom, quickly, quickly,” and again she could hardly hold back her sobs.
She sat down at the table and listened to the conversations of the elders and Nikolai, who also came to the table. “My God, my God, the same faces, the same conversations, dad holding the cup in the same way and blowing in the same way!” thought Natasha, feeling with horror the disgust rising in her against everyone at home because they were still the same.
After tea, Nikolai, Sonya and Natasha went to the sofa, to their favorite corner, where their most intimate conversations always began.
“It happens to you,” Natasha said to her brother when they sat down in the sofa, “it happens to you that it seems to you that nothing will happen - nothing; what was all that was good? And not just boring, but sad?
- And how! - he said. “It happened to me that everything was fine, everyone was cheerful, but it would come to my mind that I was already tired of all this and that everyone needed to die.” Once I didn’t go to the regiment for a walk, but there was music playing there... and so I suddenly became bored...
- Oh, I know that. I know, I know,” Natasha picked up. – I was still little, this happened to me. Do you remember, once I was punished for plums and you all danced, and I sat in the classroom and sobbed, I will never forget: I was sad and I felt sorry for everyone, and myself, and I felt sorry for everyone. And, most importantly, it wasn’t my fault,” Natasha said, “do you remember?
“I remember,” said Nikolai. “I remember that I came to you later and I wanted to console you and, you know, I was ashamed. We were terribly funny. I had a bobblehead toy then and I wanted to give it to you. Do you remember?
“Do you remember,” Natasha said with a thoughtful smile, how long ago, long ago, we were still very little, an uncle called us into the office, back in the old house, and it was dark - we came and suddenly there was standing there...
“Arap,” Nikolai finished with a joyful smile, “how can I not remember?” Even now I don’t know that it was a blackamoor, or we saw it in a dream, or we were told.
- He was gray, remember, and had white teeth - he stood and looked at us...
– Do you remember, Sonya? - Nikolai asked...
“Yes, yes, I remember something too,” Sonya answered timidly...
“I asked my father and mother about this blackamoor,” said Natasha. - They say that there was no blackamoor. But you remember!
- Oh, how I remember his teeth now.
- How strange it is, it was like a dream. I like it.
- Do you remember how we were rolling eggs in the hall and suddenly two old women began to spin around on the carpet? Was it or not? Do you remember how good it was?
- Yes. Do you remember how dad in a blue fur coat fired a gun on the porch? “They turned over, smiling with pleasure, memories, not sad old ones, but poetic youthful memories, those impressions from the most distant past, where dreams merge with reality, and laughed quietly, rejoicing at something.
Sonya, as always, lagged behind them, although their memories were common.
Sonya did not remember much of what they remembered, and what she did remember did not arouse in her the poetic feeling that they experienced. She only enjoyed their joy, trying to imitate it.
She took part only when they remembered Sonya's first visit. Sonya told how she was afraid of Nikolai, because he had strings on his jacket, and the nanny told her that they would sew her into strings too.
“And I remember: they told me that you were born under cabbage,” said Natasha, “and I remember that I didn’t dare not believe it then, but I knew that it wasn’t true, and I was so embarrassed.”
During this conversation, the maid's head poked out of the back door of the sofa room. “Miss, they brought the rooster,” the girl said in a whisper.
“No need, Polya, tell me to carry it,” said Natasha.
In the middle of the conversations going on in the sofa, Dimmler entered the room and approached the harp that stood in the corner. He took off the cloth and the harp made a false sound.
“Eduard Karlych, please play my beloved Nocturiene by Monsieur Field,” said the voice of the old countess from the living room.
Dimmler struck a chord and, turning to Natasha, Nikolai and Sonya, said: “Young people, how quietly they sit!”
“Yes, we are philosophizing,” Natasha said, looking around for a minute and continuing the conversation. The conversation was now about dreams.
Dimmer started to play. Natasha silently, on tiptoe, walked up to the table, took the candle, took it out and, returning, quietly sat down in her place. It was dark in the room, especially on the sofa on which they were sitting, but through the large windows the silver light of the full moon fell onto the floor.
“You know, I think,” Natasha said in a whisper, moving closer to Nikolai and Sonya, when Dimmler had already finished and was still sitting, weakly plucking the strings, apparently indecisive to leave or start something new, “that when you remember like that, you remember, you remember everything.” , you remember so much that you remember what happened before I was in the world...
“This is Metampsic,” said Sonya, who always studied well and remembered everything. – The Egyptians believed that our souls were in animals and would go back to animals.
“No, you know, I don’t believe it, that we were animals,” Natasha said in the same whisper, although the music had ended, “but I know for sure that we were angels here and there somewhere, and that’s why we remember everything.” ...
-Can I join you? - said Dimmler, who approached quietly and sat down next to them.
- If we were angels, then why did we fall lower? - said Nikolai. - No, this cannot be!
“Not lower, who told you that lower?... Why do I know what I was before,” Natasha objected with conviction. - After all, the soul is immortal... therefore, if I live forever, that’s how I lived before, lived for all eternity.
“Yes, but it’s hard for us to imagine eternity,” said Dimmler, who approached the young people with a meek, contemptuous smile, but now spoke as quietly and seriously as they did.
– Why is it difficult to imagine eternity? - Natasha said. - Today it will be, tomorrow it will be, it will always be and yesterday it was and yesterday it was...
- Natasha! now it's your turn. “Sing me something,” the countess’s voice was heard. - That you sat down like conspirators.
- Mother! “I don’t want to do that,” Natasha said, but at the same time she stood up.
All of them, even the middle-aged Dimmler, did not want to interrupt the conversation and leave the corner of the sofa, but Natasha stood up, and Nikolai sat down at the clavichord. As always, standing in the middle of the hall and choosing the most advantageous place for resonance, Natasha began to sing her mother’s favorite piece.
She said that she did not want to sing, but she had not sung for a long time before, and for a long time since, the way she sang that evening. Count Ilya Andreich, from the office where he was talking with Mitinka, heard her singing, and like a student, in a hurry to go play, finishing the lesson, he got confused in his words, giving orders to the manager and finally fell silent, and Mitinka, also listening, silently with a smile, stood in front of count. Nikolai did not take his eyes off his sister, and took a breath with her. Sonya, listening, thought about what a huge difference there was between her and her friend and how impossible it was for her to be even remotely as charming as her cousin. The old countess sat with a happily sad smile and tears in her eyes, occasionally shaking her head. She thought about Natasha, and about her youth, and about how there was something unnatural and terrible in this upcoming marriage of Natasha with Prince Andrei.
Dimmler sat down next to the countess and closed his eyes, listening.
“No, Countess,” he said finally, “this is a European talent, she has nothing to learn, this softness, tenderness, strength...”
- Ah! “how I’m afraid for her, how afraid I am,” said the countess, not remembering who she was talking to. Her maternal instinct told her that there was too much of something in Natasha, and that this would not make her happy. Natasha had not yet finished singing when an enthusiastic fourteen-year-old Petya ran into the room with the news that the mummers had arrived.
Natasha suddenly stopped.
- Fool! - she screamed at her brother, ran up to the chair, fell on it and sobbed so much that she could not stop for a long time.
“Nothing, Mama, really nothing, just like this: Petya scared me,” she said, trying to smile, but the tears kept flowing and sobs were choking her throat.
Dressed up servants, bears, Turks, innkeepers, ladies, scary and funny, bringing with them coldness and fun, at first timidly huddled in the hallway; then, hiding one behind the other, they were forced into the hall; and at first shyly, and then more and more cheerfully and amicably, songs, dances, choral and Christmas games began. The Countess, recognizing the faces and laughing at those dressed up, went into the living room. Count Ilya Andreich sat in the hall with a radiant smile, approving of the players. The youth disappeared somewhere.
Half an hour later, an old lady in hoops appeared in the hall between the other mummers - it was Nikolai. Petya was Turkish. Payas was Dimmler, hussar was Natasha and Circassian was Sonya, with a painted cork mustache and eyebrows.
After condescending surprise, lack of recognition and praise from those not dressed up, the young people found that the costumes were so good that they had to show them to someone else.
Nikolai, who wanted to take everyone along an excellent road in his troika, proposed, taking ten dressed up servants with him, to go to his uncle.
- No, why are you upsetting him, the old man! - said the countess, - and he has nowhere to turn. Let's go to the Melyukovs.
Melyukova was a widow with children of various ages, also with governesses and tutors, who lived four miles from Rostov.
“That’s clever, ma chère,” the old count picked up, getting excited. - Let me get dressed now and go with you. I'll stir up Pashetta.
But the countess did not agree to let the count go: his leg hurt all these days. They decided that Ilya Andreevich could not go, but that if Luisa Ivanovna (m me Schoss) went, then the young ladies could go to Melyukova. Sonya, always timid and shy, began to beg Luisa Ivanovna more urgently than anyone not to refuse them.
Sonya's outfit was the best. Her mustache and eyebrows suited her unusually. Everyone told her that she was very good, and she was in an unusually energetic mood. Some inner voice told her that now or never her fate would be decided, and she, in her man’s dress, seemed like a completely different person. Luiza Ivanovna agreed, and half an hour later four troikas with bells and bells, squealing and whistling through the frosty snow, drove up to the porch.
Natasha was the first to give the tone of Christmas joy, and this joy, reflected from one to another, intensified more and more and reached its highest degree at the time when everyone went out into the cold, and, talking, calling to each other, laughing and shouting, sat in the sleigh.
Two of the troikas were accelerating, the third was the old count’s troika with an Oryol trotter at the root; the fourth is Nikolai's own with his short, black, shaggy root. Nikolai, in his old woman's outfit, on which he put on a hussar's belted cloak, stood in the middle of his sleigh, picking up the reins.
It was so light that he saw the plaques and eyes of the horses glinting in the monthly light, looking back in fear at the riders rustling under the dark awning of the entrance.
Natasha, Sonya, m me Schoss and two girls got into Nikolai’s sleigh. Dimmler and his wife and Petya sat in the old count’s sleigh; Dressed up servants sat in the rest.
- Go ahead, Zakhar! - Nikolai shouted to his father’s coachman in order to have a chance to overtake him on the road.
The old count's troika, in which Dimmler and the other mummers sat, squealed with their runners, as if frozen to the snow, and rattled a thick bell, moved forward. The ones attached to them pressed against the shafts and got stuck, turning out the strong and shiny snow like sugar.
Nikolai set off after the first three; The others made noise and screamed from behind. At first we rode at a small trot along a narrow road. While driving past the garden, shadows from bare trees often lay across the road and hid the bright light of the moon, but as soon as we left the fence, a diamond-shiny snowy plain with a bluish sheen, all bathed in a monthly glow and motionless, opened up on all sides. Once, once, a bump hit the front sleigh; in the same way, the next sleigh and the next were pushed and, boldly breaking the chained silence, one after another the sleighs began to stretch out.
- A hare's trail, a lot of tracks! – Natasha’s voice sounded in the frozen, frozen air.
– Apparently, Nicholas! - said Sonya's voice. – Nikolai looked back at Sonya and bent down to take a closer look at her face. Some completely new, sweet face, with black eyebrows and mustache, looked out from the sables in the moonlight, close and far.
“It was Sonya before,” thought Nikolai. He looked at her closer and smiled.
– What are you, Nicholas?
“Nothing,” he said and turned back to the horses.
Having arrived on a rough, large road, oiled with runners and all covered with traces of thorns, visible in the light of the moon, the horses themselves began to tighten the reins and speed up. The left one, bending its head, twitched its lines in jumps. The root swayed, moving its ears, as if asking: “should we start or is it too early?” – Ahead, already far away and ringing like a thick bell receding, Zakhar’s black troika was clearly visible on the white snow. Shouting and laughter and the voices of those dressed up were heard from his sleigh.
“Well, you dear ones,” Nikolai shouted, tugging on the reins on one side and withdrawing his hand with the whip. And only by the wind that had become stronger, as if to meet it, and by the twitching of the fasteners, which were tightening and increasing their speed, was it noticeable how fast the troika flew. Nikolai looked back. Screaming and screaming, waving whips and forcing the indigenous people to jump, the other troikas kept pace. The root steadfastly swayed under the arc, not thinking of knocking it down and promising to push it again and again when necessary.
Nikolai caught up with the top three. They drove down some mountain and onto a widely traveled road through a meadow near a river.
“Where are we going?” thought Nikolai. - “It should be along a slanting meadow. But no, this is something new that I have never seen. This is not a slanting meadow or Demkina Mountain, but God knows what it is! This is something new and magical. Well, whatever it is!” And he, shouting at the horses, began to go around the first three.
Zakhar reined in the horses and turned around his face, which was already frozen to the eyebrows.
Nikolai started his horses; Zakhar, stretching his arms forward, smacked his lips and let his people go.
“Well, hold on, master,” he said. “The troikas flew even faster nearby, and the legs of the galloping horses quickly changed. Nikolai began to take the lead. Zakhar, without changing the position of his outstretched arms, raised one hand with the reins.
“You’re lying, master,” he shouted to Nikolai. Nikolai galloped all the horses and overtook Zakhar. The horses covered the faces of their riders with fine, dry snow, and near them there was the sound of frequent rumblings and the tangling of fast-moving legs and the shadows of the overtaking troika. The whistling of runners through the snow and women's squeals were heard from different directions.
Stopping the horses again, Nikolai looked around him. All around was the same magical plain soaked through with moonlight with stars scattered across it.
“Zakhar shouts for me to take a left; why go left? thought Nikolai. Are we going to the Melyukovs, is this Melyukovka? God knows where we are going, and God knows what is happening to us - and it is very strange and good what is happening to us.” He looked back at the sleigh.
“Look, he has a mustache and eyelashes, everything is white,” said one of the strange, pretty and alien people with a thin mustache and eyebrows.
“This one, it seems, was Natasha,” thought Nikolai, and this one is m me Schoss; or maybe not, but I don’t know who this Circassian with the mustache is, but I love her.”
-Aren't you cold? - he asked. They did not answer and laughed. Dimmler shouted something from the back sleigh, probably funny, but it was impossible to hear what he was shouting.
“Yes, yes,” the voices answered laughing.
- However, here is some kind of magical forest with shimmering black shadows and sparkles of diamonds and with some kind of enfilade of marble steps, and some kind of silver roofs of magical buildings, and the piercing screeching of some animals. “And if this really is Melyukovka, then it’s even stranger that we were traveling God knows where, and came to Melyukovka,” thought Nikolai.
Indeed, it was Melyukovka, and girls and lackeys with candles and joyful faces ran out to the entrance.
- Who it? - they asked from the entrance.
“The counts are dressed up, I can see it by the horses,” answered the voices.
Pelageya Danilovna Melyukova, a broad, energetic woman, wearing glasses and a swinging hood, was sitting in the living room, surrounded by her daughters, whom she tried not to let get bored. They were quietly pouring wax and looking at the shadows of the emerging figures when the footsteps and voices of visitors began to rustle in the hall.
Hussars, ladies, witches, payassas, bears, clearing their throats and wiping their frost-covered faces in the hallway, entered the hall, where candles were hastily lit. The clown - Dimmler and the lady - Nikolai opened the dance. Surrounded by screaming children, the mummers, covering their faces and changing their voices, bowed to the hostess and positioned themselves around the room.
- Oh, it’s impossible to find out! And Natasha! Look who she looks like! Really, it reminds me of someone. Eduard Karlych is so good! I didn't recognize it. Yes, how she dances! Oh, fathers, and some kind of Circassian; right, how it suits Sonyushka. Who else is this? Well, they consoled me! Take the tables, Nikita, Vanya. And we sat so quietly!
- Ha ha ha!... Hussar this, hussar that! Just like a boy, and his legs!... I can’t see... - voices were heard.
Natasha, the favorite of the young Melyukovs, disappeared with them into the back rooms, where they needed cork and various dressing gowns and men's dresses, which through the open door received the bare girlish hands from the footman. Ten minutes later, all the youth of the Melyukov family joined the mummers.
Pelageya Danilovna, having ordered the clearing of the place for the guests and refreshments for the gentlemen and servants, without taking off her glasses, with a restrained smile, walked among the mummers, looking closely into their faces and not recognizing anyone. Not only did she not recognize the Rostovs and Dimmler, but she also could not recognize either her daughters or her husband’s robes and uniforms that they were wearing.
-Whose is this? - she said, turning to her governess and looking into the face of her daughter, who represented the Kazan Tatar. - It seems like someone from Rostov. Well, Mr. Hussar, what regiment do you serve in? – she asked Natasha. “Give the Turk, give the Turk some marshmallows,” she said to the bartender who was serving them: “this is not prohibited by their law.”
Sometimes, looking at the strange but funny steps performed by the dancers, who had decided once and for all that they were dressed up, that no one would recognize them and therefore were not embarrassed, Pelageya Danilovna covered herself with a scarf, and her entire corpulent body shook from the uncontrollable, kind, old lady’s laughter . - Sashinet is mine, Sashinet is that! - she said.
After Russian dances and round dances, Pelageya Danilovna united all the servants and gentlemen together, in one large circle; They brought a ring, a string and a ruble, and general games were arranged.
An hour later, all the suits were wrinkled and upset. Cork mustaches and eyebrows were smeared across sweaty, flushed and cheerful faces. Pelageya Danilovna began to recognize the mummers, admired how well the costumes were made, how they suited especially the young ladies, and thanked everyone for making her so happy. The guests were invited to dine in the living room, and the courtyard was served in the hall.
- No, guessing in the bathhouse, that’s scary! - said the old girl who lived with the Melyukovs at dinner.
- From what? – asked the eldest daughter of the Melyukovs.
- Don’t go, you need courage...
“I’ll go,” said Sonya.
- Tell me, how was it with the young lady? - said the second Melyukova.
“Yes, just like that, one young lady went,” said the old girl, “she took a rooster, two utensils, and sat down properly.” She sat there, just heard, suddenly she was driving... with bells, with bells, a sleigh drove up; hears, comes. He comes in completely in human form, like an officer, he came and sat down with her at the device.
- A! Ah!...” Natasha screamed, rolling her eyes in horror.
- How can he say that?
- Yes, as a person, everything is as it should be, and he began and began to persuade, and she should have occupied him with conversation until the roosters; and she became shy; – she just became shy and covered herself with her hands. He picked it up. It's good that the girls came running...
- Well, why scare them! - said Pelageya Danilovna.
“Mother, you yourself were guessing...” said the daughter.
- How do they tell fortunes in the barn? – asked Sonya.
- Well, at least now, they’ll go to the barn and listen. What will you hear: hammering, knocking - bad, but pouring bread - this is good; and then it happens...
- Mom, tell me what happened to you in the barn?
Pelageya Danilovna smiled.
“Oh, well, I forgot…” she said. - You won’t go, will you?
- No, I'll go; Pepageya Danilovna, let me in, I’ll go,” said Sonya.
- Well, if you're not afraid.
- Luiza Ivanovna, may I? – asked Sonya.
Whether they were playing ring, string or ruble, or talking, as now, Nikolai did not leave Sonya and looked at her with completely new eyes. It seemed to him that today, only for the first time, thanks to that corky mustache, he fully recognized her. Sonya really was cheerful, lively and beautiful that evening, like Nikolai had never seen her before.
“So that’s what she is, and I’m a fool!” he thought, looking at her sparkling eyes and her happy, enthusiastic smile, making dimples on her cheeks from under her mustache, a smile that he had never seen before.
“I’m not afraid of anything,” said Sonya. - Can I do it now? - She stood up. They told Sonya where the barn was, how she could stand silently and listen, and they gave her a fur coat. She threw it over her head and looked at Nikolai.
“What a beauty this girl is!” he thought. “And what have I been thinking about so far!”
Sonya went out into the corridor to go to the barn. Nikolai hurriedly went to the front porch, saying that he was hot. Indeed, the house was stuffy from the crowded people.
It was the same motionless cold outside, the same month, only it was even lighter. The light was so strong and there were so many stars on the snow that I didn’t want to look at the sky, and the real stars were invisible. In the sky it was black and boring, on earth it was fun.
“I’m a fool, a fool! What have you been waiting for so far? thought Nikolai and, running onto the porch, he walked around the corner of the house along the path that led to the back porch. He knew that Sonya would come here. Halfway along the road there were stacked fathoms of firewood, there was snow on them, and a shadow fell from them; through them and from their sides, intertwining, the shadows of old bare linden trees fell onto the snow and the path. The path led to the barn. The chopped wall of the barn and the roof, covered with snow, as if carved from some kind of precious stone, glittered in the monthly light. A tree cracked in the garden, and again everything was completely silent. The chest seemed to breathe not air, but some kind of eternally youthful strength and joy.
Feet clattered on the steps from the maiden porch, there was a loud creaking sound on the last one, which was covered with snow, and the voice of an old girl said:
- Straight, straight, along the path, young lady. Just don't look back.
“I’m not afraid,” answered Sonya’s voice, and Sonya’s legs squealed and whistled in her thin shoes along the path towards Nikolai.
Sonya walked wrapped in a fur coat. She was already two steps away when she saw him; She also saw him not as she knew him and as she had always been a little afraid. He was in a woman's dress with tangled hair and a happy and new smile for Sonya. Sonya quickly ran up to him.
“Completely different, and still the same,” thought Nikolai, looking at her face, all illuminated by moonlight. He put his hands under the fur coat that covered her head, hugged her, pressed her to him and kissed her on the lips, above which there was a mustache and from which there was a smell of burnt cork. Sonya kissed him in the very center of his lips and, extending her small hands, took his cheeks on both sides.
“Sonya!... Nicolas!...” they just said. They ran to the barn and returned each from their own porch.
When everyone drove back from Pelageya Danilovna, Natasha, who always saw and noticed everything, arranged the accommodation in such a way that Luiza Ivanovna and she sat in the sleigh with Dimmler, and Sonya sat with Nikolai and the girls.
Nikolai, no longer overtaking, rode smoothly on the way back, and still peering at Sonya in this strange moonlight, looking for in this ever-changing light, from under his eyebrows and mustache, that former and present Sonya, with whom he had decided never again to be separated. He peered, and when he recognized the same and the other and remembered, hearing that smell of cork, mixed with the feeling of a kiss, he deeply inhaled the frosty air and, looking at the receding earth and the brilliant sky, he felt himself again in a magical kingdom.
- Sonya, are you okay? – he asked occasionally.
“Yes,” answered Sonya. - And you?
In the middle of the road, Nikolai let the coachman hold the horses, ran up to Natasha’s sleigh for a moment and stood on the lead.
“Natasha,” he told her in a whisper in French, “you know, I’ve made up my mind about Sonya.”
-Did you tell her? – Natasha asked, suddenly beaming with joy.
- Oh, how strange you are with those mustaches and eyebrows, Natasha! Are you glad?
– I’m so glad, so glad! I was already angry with you. I didn't tell you, but you treated her badly. This is such a heart, Nicolas. I am so glad! “I can be nasty, but I was ashamed to be the only happy one without Sonya,” Natasha continued. “Now I’m so glad, well, run to her.”
- No, wait, oh, how funny you are! - said Nikolai, still peering at her, and in his sister, too, finding something new, extraordinary and charmingly tender, which he had never seen in her before. - Natasha, something magical. A?
“Yes,” she answered, “you did great.”
“If I had seen her before as she is now,” thought Nikolai, “I would have asked long ago what to do and would have done whatever she ordered, and everything would have been fine.”
“So you’re happy, and I did good?”
- Oh, so good! I recently quarreled with my mother over this. Mom said she's catching you. How can you say this? I almost got into a fight with my mom. And I will never allow anyone to say or think anything bad about her, because there is only good in her.
- So good? - Nikolai said, once again looking for the expression on his sister’s face to find out if it was true, and, squeaking with his boots, he jumped off the slope and ran to his sleigh. The same happy, smiling Circassian, with a mustache and sparkling eyes, looking out from under a sable hood, was sitting there, and this Circassian was Sonya, and this Sonya was probably his future, happy and loving wife.
Arriving home and telling their mother about how they spent time with the Melyukovs, the young ladies went home. Having undressed, but without erasing their cork mustaches, they sat for a long time, talking about their happiness. They talked about how they would live married, how their husbands would be friends and how happy they would be.
On Natasha’s table there were mirrors that Dunyasha had prepared since the evening. - Just when will all this happen? I'm afraid I never... That would be too good! – Natasha said getting up and going to the mirrors.
“Sit down, Natasha, maybe you’ll see him,” said Sonya. Natasha lit the candles and sat down. “I see someone with a mustache,” said Natasha, who saw her face.
“Don’t laugh, young lady,” Dunyasha said.
With the help of Sonya and the maid, Natasha found the position of the mirror; her face took on a serious expression and she fell silent. She sat for a long time, looking at the row of receding candles in the mirrors, assuming (based on the stories she had heard) that she would see the coffin, that she would see him, Prince Andrei, in this last, merging, vague square. But no matter how ready she was to mistake the slightest spot for the image of a person or a coffin, she saw nothing. She began to blink frequently and moved away from the mirror.
Benjamin Netanyahu is an Israeli statesman and politician. Leader of the Likud Party (1993-1999 and since 2005), Prime Minister of Israel (1996-1999 and from 2009 to the present).
Benjamin Netanyahu was born into the family of a history professor and personal secretary of Ze'ev Jabotinsky Ben-Zion Netanyahu (Milikovsky), the son of immigrants from Lithuania and Tsilya Netanyahu (Segal). Benjamin is their second son. Benjamin had two brothers. The elder, Yonatan (Yoni) Netanyahu, a national hero of Israel, died during the operation to free Israeli hostages in Entebbe. Dr. Ido Netanyahu's younger brother is a radiologist and writer.
Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister born in the independent state of Israel.
In 1963, when Benjamin was 14 years old, the family moved to the United States. There he studied at school, where he was called "Bibi", and then at MIT (Massachusetts) and Harvard (architecture - 1st degree; economics, business management - 2nd degree).
He was drafted into the army in 1967. He served in the elite sabotage and reconnaissance unit at the General Staff of Sayeret Matkal. Participated in several top-secret military operations on the territory of enemy countries, and was wounded twice. He received one of the wounds during the operation to free a Sabena airline plane captured by Palestinian terrorists on May 9, 1972.
After completing his studies in the United States, Netanyahu returned to Israel in 1977. Here he worked for some time as a top marketing manager in a furniture company.
In 1982, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Moshe Arens appointed Netanyahu as his deputy. From 1984 to 1988, Netanyahu served as Israel's ambassador to the UN. In 1988, he was elected to the Knesset on the Likud party ticket. In 1992, Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir resigned after the party lost the elections. In the primaries, Netanyahu manages to become the leader of the party, defeating Benny Begin, the son of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and David Levy.
Articles on political topics written by B. Netanyahu were published in such publications as the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, Time weekly and many others.
Author of several books on political topics. Founder of the International Institute on Terror (Yonatan Institute). Consul General of Israel to the USA (1982-1984), Ambassador to the UN (1984-1988). Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1988-90), Deputy Minister in the Ministry of the Prime Minister (1990-1992), leader of the Likud Party and head of the opposition (1993).
In 1996, in the first direct elections of the head of government, he was elected Prime Minister of Israel.
Prime Minister
In the first direct elections for Israeli Prime Minister in 1996, Netanyahu managed to defeat Shimon Peres, leader of the Labor Party. This was facilitated by the terrorist attacks organized by Palestinian Islamist groups on March 3 and 4, 1996, shortly before the elections. 32 Israelis were killed in the attacks. Also, to conduct his campaign, Netanyahu invited political strategist Arthur Finkelstein from the United States, who conducted an aggressive election campaign in the American style. Previously, such methods of conducting an election campaign were not practiced in Israel.
Netanyahu became the youngest prime minister in Israeli history.
Although Netanyahu won the election for the head of government, his rivals from the Labor party won the Knesset elections. As a result, Netanyahu had to rely on an unstable coalition involving the ultra-religious parties Shas and Yahadut HaTorah. The focus of these parties on social welfare and the security of their electorate ran counter to Netanyahu’s capitalist views.
Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat sign the Vay Plantation agreement in the presence of Madeleine Albright.
As prime minister, Netanyahu drew up a new formula for relations with the Palestinians - mutual fulfillment of obligations and termination of cooperation if this principle is violated. He concluded an agreement with the Palestinians on Hebron on November 11, 1997, within the framework of which he transferred to them most (80%) of the city. In 1998, through the mediation of US President Bill Clinton, he concluded the Wye Plantation Agreement with Yasser Arafat, according to which the Palestinians received 13% of the territories of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) (Area A), including areas adjacent to Palestinian cities and areas with massive Palestinian populations.
Following a decision by Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, the Hasmonean tunnel under the Temple Mount was opened in September 1996, leading to a series of clashes with Palestinians that resulted in casualties on both sides.
Netanyahu supported a market economy and free enterprise; as part of this policy, he began changing the taxation system and redistributing government benefits. He continued this policy when he was finance minister in the Sharon government. During his tenure, economic and intercommunal contradictions intensified. In particular, many city-forming enterprises in the north and south were closed under the pretext of economic inexpediency.
Netanyahu fell out of favor because the Israeli left was initially opposed to him, and the right-wing population was unhappy with the concessions Netanyahu was making to the Palestinian Authority and his meetings with Arafat. In addition, a case was opened against Netanyahu on charges of corruption (later closed without going to trial). In 1999, he lost early elections to Ehud Barak and announced his retirement from politics.
After resignation
At first, he actively lectured at American universities, but did not leave politics, actively speaking out on the controversial steps of his heir as prime minister, reacting from the position of a “concerned citizen.” In 2001, he refused to participate in the direct elections of the Prime Minister due to the Knesset's refusal to dissolve itself.
He announced his return to politics on the eve of the 2003 elections, but lost to Ariel Sharon in the election for the head of Likud. Sharon appointed Netanyahu as foreign minister in 2002 and then as finance minister after elections in 2003. In this position, Netanyahu continued his economic reforms, which caused rejection among many segments of the population who did not realize that economic reforms could not have an immediate effect and feared the “capitalization” of Israel’s largely socialist economy. At the same time, these reforms were of great importance for the country's banking system and led to GDP growth.
In August 2005, on the eve of the start of the disengagement plan, Netanyahu resigned from the government in protest and became the head of the internal party opposition. In September 2005, Sharon and a group of supporters left Likud and created a new party, Kadima. In the Likud leadership election in November, Netanyahu easily wins and re-emerges as the party's leader and its candidate for prime minister.
In March 2006, the Likud party received only 12 seats in the parliamentary elections and refused to join Ehud Olmert's coalition. After the formation of the government, Netanyahu became the leader of the opposition. According to public opinion polls after the second Lebanese war, he enjoyed the highest rating as a candidate for the post of prime minister. As part of his position, Netanyahu spoke on all major issues on the agenda and in major public forums.
2009 elections and Netanyahu's second term
In the parliamentary elections on February 10, 2009, the Likud party, led by Netanyahu, took 2nd place after Kadima, receiving 27 seats in parliament. However, given that Kadima received only 1 seat more, and Kadima failed to create a viable coalition, Israeli President Shimon Peres on February 20 instructed Netanyahu to form a government.
The government that Netanyahu created became one of the largest in the history of Israel and includes 30 ministers and 9 deputy ministers from the parties: Likud, Our Home Israel, Avodah, Shas, Mafdal and Torah Jewry. Soon after taking the oath of office, the new Israeli government was faced with the demand of American President Barack Obama to resolve the conflict within 2 years.
On June 21, Netanyahu presented his plan for a Middle East settlement, within the framework of which he agreed to the creation of a Palestinian state with limited rights, if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the national home of the Jewish people and receive security guarantees for Israel, including international ones.
Family status
Married for the third time. Daughter Noah from his first marriage to Michal Geren, sons Yair and Avner from his third marriage to Sarah Ben-Artzi.
Benjamin Netanyahu, also known as Bibi, is an Israeli politician and diplomat who served as Prime Minister twice (1996-1999 and 2009). He is also a member of the Knesset and chairman of the Likud party.
Benjamin Netanyahu: biography
Born on October 21, 1949 in Tel Aviv, Israel, in the family of historian Benzion Netanyahu and Tsilya Segal. He grew up and studied in Jerusalem. Benjamin Netanyahu moved to the United States with his family in his youth, to the Philadelphia suburb of Cheltenham. Here he studied and graduated from high school.
Enlisting in the Israeli army in 1967, Benjamin Netanyahu (photo later in the article) became a soldier in the elite Sayeret Matkal special forces unit and was part of the team that participated in the release of a hijacked plane at Tel Aviv airport in 1972. He later attended MIT (graduated in 1976), but took a leave of absence to fight in the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Following the death of his brother Jonathan during a successful raid in Entebbe in 1976, Benjamin founded an institute in his name, which funded conferences on counter-terrorism.
Netanyahu worked in embassies until he was elected to the Israeli Knesset parliament from the Likud party in 1988. He was Deputy Foreign Minister (1988-1991) and then Deputy Minister in Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's coalition cabinet (1991-1992). In 1993, he easily won the election as leader of the Likud party, replacing Yitzhak Shamir. Netanyahu rose to prominence for his opposition to the 1993 peace accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization, which resulted in Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Victory 1996
Electoral support for the ruling Workers' Party declined in the 1996 elections following the assassination of Rabin in November 1995 and a series of suicide bombings in early 1996. In the first direct elections on May 29, 1996, Netanyahu defeated Shimon Peres with a margin of about 1% of the votes. Having formed a government, he became the youngest prime minister of Israel.
During Netanyahu's tenure in office, the country experienced unrest. Relations with Syria deteriorated soon after he took office, and a decision in September 1996 to open an ancient tunnel near the Al-Aqsa Mosque angered Palestinians and sparked heavy fighting. Netanyahu then changed his tune on the 1993 peace accords and in 1997 agreed to withdraw troops from most of the West Bank city of Hebron.
Coalition pressure, however, forced the prime minister to announce his intention to create new Jewish settlements on land that the Palestinians considered theirs. He also significantly reduced the amount of land that was to be given to Palestinians during the next phase of Israeli troop withdrawal from the West Bank. Violent protests began, including a series of explosions.
In 1998, Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat took part in peace talks that led to the Wye River Memorandum, the terms of which included bringing 40% of the West Bank under Palestinian control. The agreement was opposed by right-wing groups in Israel, and several factions left the coalition. In 1998, the Knesset dissolved the government and new elections were scheduled for May 1999.
Government scandals
Netanyahu's re-election campaign has been hampered by the disunity of the right wing, as well as growing voter dissatisfaction with inconsistent peace policies and his often controversial style. In addition, a series of scandals erupted in his administration, which included the appointment in 1997 of Roni Bar-On, a Likud party functionary, as prosecutor general. After allegations were made that Bar-On wanted to arrange a deal with justice for a Netanyahu ally accused of fraud and bribery, a series of votes of no confidence were passed in the Knesset. With the prime minister's main political support eroded, he was easily defeated by Ehud Barak, leader of the Labor party, in the 1999 elections.
In Sharon's Shadow
In 1999, Netanyahu was replaced as head of the party by Ariel Sharon, but he remained popular. When early elections were called in 2001, Binyamin resigned from his seat in the Knesset and was therefore ineligible to run for prime minister. Netanyahu made a failed attempt to remove Sharon. In the latter's government, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (2002-2003) and Minister of Finance (2003-2005).
In 2005, Sharon left Likud and formed the centrist Kadima. Netanyahu was subsequently elected leader of the party, but did not become prime minister after the 2006 Knesset elections, when Likud won only 12 seats and Kadima 29.
Victory 2009
In the February 2009 elections, Likud already won 27 seats, losing one to Kadima, led by Tzipi Livni. Because the results were close and uncertain, however, it was not immediately clear who would be asked to form a coalition government. During negotiations in the following days, Netanyahu won the support of the NDI (15 mandates), Shas (11 mandates), as well as a number of smaller parties, and asked the Israeli President to form a government, which was sworn in on March 31, 2009.
Hard line
In June 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time expressed support for an independent Palestinian state, provided that it was demilitarized and officially recognized Israel as Jewish. These conditions were quickly rejected by Palestinian leaders. A brief round of talks in 2010 collapsed when a 10-month moratorium on settlements in the West Bank expired and Israel refused to extend it. The peace process remained stalled for the remainder of the prime minister's term.
Benjamin Netanyahu has also pursued a hard line on foreign policy, lobbying the international community to take stronger action against Iran's nuclear weapons program, which he called the biggest threat to the security of Israel and the world.
He also expressed pessimism about a series of popular uprisings and revolutions in the Arab world in 2011, called the Arab Spring, predicting that the new leaders would be more hostile to the Jewish state than their predecessors.
Domestic policy
Domestically, Benjamin Netanyahu has faced growing dissatisfaction among the middle class and youth with the state of the economy. In the summer of 2011, street protests spread throughout Israel against social and economic inequality, with calls for increased government support for transport, education, preschools, housing conditions, and others.
Elections in January 2013 returned Netanyahu to the post of prime minister, but at the head of a coalition that was closer to the political center than the previous one. A new center-left party, Yesh Atid, emerged, which advocated solving the socio-economic problems of the middle class. Meanwhile, the combined list of Likud and NDI won the most seats in the Knesset in 2013, but did not live up to expectations. After several weeks of negotiations, Netanyahu managed to reach an agreement with Yesh Atid and some smaller parties.
Decisive confrontation
In July 2014, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the launch of a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks on the country. At the end of the 50-day campaign, Netanyahu said the goal of inflicting significant damage to the militants' ability to fire rockets had been achieved. Internationally, however, the operation was criticized for the high number of Palestinian casualties. By the end of 2014, serious disagreements had emerged within the ruling coalition over the budget and a controversial bill defining Israel as a Jewish state. In December, Netanyahu removed Lapid and Livni from the cabinet, prompting the calling of early elections for March 2015.
New tensions arose in relations between Netanyahu and Barack Obama - this time over negotiations with the Palestinians - in 2014, when Netanyahu began to criticize the US administration's policy towards Iran, aimed at resolving the nuclear issue through international negotiations. Netanyahu argued that any compromise would ultimately lead Iran to nuclear weapons and that sanctions against Iran should be maintained.
Victory 2015
In January 2015, with elections approaching, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to speak to the US Congress on the topic of Iran, which he did on March 3. The invitation became a source of controversy because it was made by the House speaker without prior notice to the White House and because Netanyahu could be critical of the Obama administration. There have been accusations that by openly aligning himself with the camp of opponents of the incumbent president, Netanyahu jeopardized bipartisan US support for Israel.
As March 17 approached, analysts predicted a fight between the Likud and the Zionist Union, a center-left alliance of the Labor and HaTnuah parties. When the results were announced, it became clear that Netanyahu and his party had won a decisive victory, taking a majority of 30 seats in the Knesset. The Zionist Union received only 24.
Benjamin Netanyahu's date of birth is October 21, 1949., place of birth is Tel Aviv.
His father's name was Benzion, he previously bore the surname Mileikovsky, and came from a family with Lithuanian roots. He was a professor, had a history education, and was the secretary of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement and a famous writer. Years of life of Benzion Netanyahu - 1910-2012.
Mother, Tsilya, previously had the surname Segal, born in Palestine, years of her life - 1912-2000. Benjamin has two brothers. The elder Jonathan is a lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army and is a national hero.
He suffered a heroic death at the age of 30 during an armed operation to free hostages, this happened in 1976.
Ido, the youngest of three brothers, born in 1952, is a famous writer and playwright, and also works as a radiologist.
Benjamin's father was a teacher and worked in the USA for several years. The family lived with him, and therefore Benjamin graduated from high school not in Israel, but in the USA.
After completing his secondary education, Netanyahu returned to Israel, and in 1967, his period of service in the Israeli army began, which lasted until 1972. Over the years, Benjamin suffered many trials; he received two combat wounds. The demonstrated valor and participation in many reconnaissance and combat operations allowed Benjamin to receive the rank of captain.
Netanyahu received his higher education (Bachelor of Architecture) in the United States, in Massachusetts. The training period (1972-1977) was interrupted in 1973 when Netanyahu left the United States to fight in the Fourth Arab-Israeli War. For his courage, he was awarded another army rank - major.
Netanyahu has returned home in 1977. From this period his political career began; he was the founder of the Y. Netanyahu Anti-Terrorism Institute. He actively participates in organizing and holding conferences international scale concerning anti-terrorism activities, the first politically important acquaintances and connections are made.
In 1982, Netanyahu received his first appointment to the highly significant post of Deputy Ambassador of Israel to the United States. The following year, he participated in the most important negotiations with the United States as part of the official Israeli delegation.
The next step in his career was his appointment in 1984. Israeli Ambassador to the UN. Work in this position enriched me with invaluable experience in the field of international politics, and was extremely useful in the future.
Four years later, Netanyahu returned to his homeland, and the experience gained allowed him to take the post of deputy minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he remained until 1990, then devoted two years to work in Ministry of the Head of Government.
The years from 1996 to 1999 became significant in Netanyahu’s activities. During this period he held the post Prime Minister of the State of Israel. The first direct elections in the history of this state brought him to this position. Netanyahu's rival in the election fight was Shimon Peres.
Netanyahu also became famous for being the youngest Prime Minister of Israel. The Likud party he led was unable to obtain a ruling majority, and Netanyahu had to form the Knesset from representatives of different parties - Gesher, Shas, Likud, MAFDAL and several others.
While serving as Prime Minister, Netanyahu actively continued anti-terrorism activities and a peaceful settlement with Palestine. Domestic policy actively supported entrepreneurship and market liberalization.
In 1999, having failed in the early elections, Netanyahu resigned as prime minister and temporarily retired from the political arena. For several years he lectured and worked as a business consultant.
Netanyahu has returned to active work in 2002 y, and continued his career, receiving an appointment in an area already familiar to him - to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the post of minister, and in 2003 he became Minister of Finance. Beginning in 2006, for three years, he held the familiar position of leader of the opposition in the Knesset.
In 2009, Netanyahu again took the same post that he successfully held in 1996-99, and became the Prime Minister of Israel for the second time.
Netanyahu's religion: Judaism. He is married now is in his third marriage, is the father of three children, he has one daughter (Noa), and two sons (Yavir and Avner). Netanyahu's wife is the daughter of a famous Israeli educator, her name is Sarah Ben-Artzi.
Benjamin Netanyahu is also known as author of numerous books and articles on the topic of politics. His articles can be found in periodicals in different countries - Le Monde, The Times, Los Angeles Times and many other publications.
