Israel has a new Prime Minister!

Yesterday, Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu assumed the leadership of the State of Israel.

Binyamin Netanyahu took the oath of office as Prime Minister shortly before midnight on Tuesday after the Knesset voted 69-45 in favor of the new government. Five Labor party Knesset members abstained from voting in a protest move against the coalition agreement engineered by party chairman and outgoing Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

The swearing-in ceremony included a declaration of faith in serving the public and agreeing to abide by Knesset decisions. The same oath was taken by 30 Cabinet ministers, who will become part of the country’s largest ever Cabinet.

Immediate past Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On (Kadima) ridiculed the new government in a lengthy speech in which he charged that the bloated Cabinet will cost taxpayers eight billion shekels ($2 billion a year.)

He also chided the new prime minister for violating the same principles he adopted and fought for during the past several years, particularly his opposition to raising child support payments, which Shas demanded as the price of its joining the Likud-led coalition.

Kadima’s opposition to the Shas demand cost the party a chance to form the government last September and forced new elections after chairwoman Tzipi Livni failed to convince enough parties to join a government to replace the one led by her predecessor, Ehud Olmert. He continued in office in the wake of Livni's failure.

She took her seat in the Opposition on Tuesday night, bitterly attacking Labor party chairman Barak for joining the government despite his having promised after the February election of the new Knesset that he would sit in the Opposition.

Netanyahu now heads the 32nd government since the re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The new prime minister has returned to the office for a second time, having presided over the government 10 years ago until opposition from the national religious parties brought down his coalition.

Netanyahu lost the ensuing election to Ehud Barak, who served as prime minister for only 18 months after a no-confidence vote toppled his government due to extensive concessions to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Yasser Arafat, who at the time was chairman of the PA, immediately launched the Oslo War, also known as the Second Intifada, after having rejected Barak's offer to hand over to the Arab entity nearly all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

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Binyamin Netanyahu Prime Minister Elect of the State of Israel



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Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu was born in 1949 in Tel Aviv and grew up in Jerusalem. He attended High School in the US, where his father, historian Benzion Netanyahu, was doing research. Returning to Israel in 1967, Mr. Netanyahu enlisted in the IDF and served in an elite commando unit, Sayeret Matkal. He took part in a number of military operations, including the rescue of hostages in a high-jacked Sabena airplane in 1972. In the same year, he was cited for outstanding operational leadership by the late Major General Motta Gur. Discharged from the IDF in 1972, Mr. Netanyahu participated in the Yom Kippur War and reached the rank of captain.

Mr. Netanyahu received a B.Sc. degree in architecture and a M.Sc. in business management from MIT. He also studied political science at MIT and Harvard University.

In 1998 Mr. Netanyahu was elected to the Knesset on the Likud party list and was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. During the Gulf War he served as Israel's principal representative in the international arena. In 1991, he was a senior member of the Israeli delegation to the Madrid peace conference and as such, participated in the first strategic cooperation program between Israel and the US.

In 1993 Mr. Netanyahu was elected Likud party chairman and served as head of opposition until his election to Prime Minister of Israel in 1996.

During his term as Prime Minister, Mr. Netanyahu implemented policy that combined fighting terror with advancement of the peace process. Its cornerstone was the conclusion of well-measured agreements with the Palestinians that insisted on reciprocity. During his three year term the number of terror attacks drastically decreased.

Mr. Netanyahu has written a number of books that appeared in Hebrew and English, with some also translated into Russian, French, Arabic, Japanese and other languages.

After the weak and ineffective leadership of Kadima these past years it is refreshing to see Israel once again in the hands of a strong leader. One who will not bow down to the demands that the Obama government will try to impose on Israel in order to weaken the Jewish nation and eventually destroy it.