MIDEAST-ISRAEL/NETANYAHU PROFILE Profile for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Record ID: 401029

  • Title: MIDEAST-ISRAEL/NETANYAHU PROFILE Profile for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
  • Date: 3rd December 2014
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (FILE, JULY 1996) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU AND HIS NEW GOVERNMENT IN A PHOTOP AT THE RESIDENCE OF FORMER ISRAELI PRESIDENT EZER WEIZMAN NETANYAHU AND WEIZMAN SHAKING HANDS
  • Embargoed: 18th December 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA46JCOW3RKZ8R4OBB3IN2D5UD0
  • Story Text: One of Benjamin Netanyahu's 6th grade school reports described him as "friendly, disciplined and obedient", according to the Jerusalem Post. Fifty years on, the Israeli prime minister may be wishing coalition politics was the same.
    Barely 20 months after forming his latest government, Netanyahu dismissed two cabinet ministers on Tuesday (December 2), accusing them of undermining his authority, and announced new elections, which have been set for March 17, 2015, two years early.
    Opinion polls suggest his right-wing Likud party will top the ballot and he will have a chance to form a new coalition, although a lot can change in three months, especially with Israel's personality driven politics, with politicians frequently breaking away to form their own parties.
    Netanyahu, who spent years studying and working in the United States and retains an American accent, is already Israel's second-longest serving leader and appears determined to become the longest, displacing David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minsiter after the country's founding in 1948.
    A former management consultant who holds a degree in architecture, "Bibi" Netanyahu has the background of someone who likes order. Yet with 33 governments in 66 years, order is something many Israeli leaders have struggled to impose.
    Supporters say Netanyahu is convinced voters still want his combination of tough talk on security, settlement building on land the Palestinians seek for a state, a no-nonsense approach to Iran and a defence-and-technology driven economy.
    Opponents worry the next government will be even more right-leaning than the last, putting Israel on a collision course with the Palestinians and making relations with critical allies such as the United States and the European Union even more abrasive.
    Having jettisoned the most moderate figures in his cabinet - Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni - Netanyahu will have to look elsewhere to form a new coalition, as long as he does in fact win the next elections.
    But one influential member of Netanyahu's party, Moshe Kahlon, is threatening to break away and form his own movement, and some polls suggest he could secure as many as 12 seats in the 120-seat Knesset (parliament) if he does.
    The upshoot is that while Netanyahu may be keen to show his authority and convince voters he is the right person to lead the country at a time of regional turmoil and rising domestic unrest, the outlook is far from clear or certain.
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