There are few new or surprising details in it. Netanyahu’s life has already been reported on in minute detail by the Israeli media and been the subject of half a dozen biographies already. And yet, in his telling it is still a fascinating story of the meteoric rise of a boy who spent his childhood split between Jerusalem and various American cities. His five years of military service in the most elite of Israeli combat units, followed by his years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Then the death in Entebbe of his elder brother Yoni and a few years in which he seems to have gone astray, not quite finding himself in the business world either in the U.S. or Israel. Until he got the unexpected offer to become Israel’s deputy ambassador in Washington at the age of 32, making him an almost overnight media star and launching his breathtaking public career. Bibi Netanyahu: No they fit in mine, because I believe, look. I think that I don't take a pollyannish view of democracies. Democracies can have different ethnic groups, they can have different, all sorts of conflicts, built-in conflicts. And the way you solve them is twofold. One, you solve them by the idea of democratic votes. You basically try to come to an agreement, and if you can, you do. And if you don't, you go to the ballot, not through the bullet, okay? That's what differentiates democracy. It's the non-violent majority-based solution to conflicts in a given country. But that for me is again, a fundament but not enough. It's necessary but not sufficient. The sufficient element that adds to, that gives practical success to that, is a free economy, a mobile economy, in which everybody has, as much as you can, equal opportunity. And for that, you have to incorporate the Arab community into the Israeli success story, into inspiring them, entrepreneurship, education that leads to higher income, and- But Trump being Trump – a president of “inherent irreverence”, in Netanyahu’s words – colorful details of private meetings do make it to print.

Bibi: My Story Fathom – Book Review | Bibi: My Story

It includes, among other topics, Mr. Netanyahu’s upbringing and education in both Israel and the United States, his own military service with a branch of Israel’s special forces, the Sayeret Maktal, his entry into business and then Israel’s diplomatic service in Washington during the Reagan administration, and, of course, his various terms as Prime Minister and leader of the opposition. While any autobiographer can be expected to put the facts about his or her life in the best possible light, what emerges—independent of what Mr. Netanyahu writes about himself—is a picture of a highly competent man of many, varied talents and someone who has much to teach about leadership. When he was asked by a student in 2018, what is the most important subject to study for a political career, Benjamin Netanyahu replied that there were three answers: ‘History, history and more history’. Netanyahu says he showed “a simple slide for the president. It showed the distance from Tel Aviv to the 1967 lines to which the Palestinians demanded we retreat. Superimposed on the map was the distance from Trump Tower to the George Washington Bridge. The two distances” – a little more than six miles as the crow flies – “were identical.Bibi Netanyahu: Well first of all, that's a decision of the voters, and the voters decided that. But the answer, the answer is a very simple one. Yes, I was there in office for quite a long time, altogether 15 years, which in a year will be the longest, the longest-serving leader of a democratic country in 53 years. So that's, so why did that happen? Well you know, people said, "There's Bibi fatigue. You know, you're not gonna win an election." So why did I give this 5 stars? Because he described so thoroughly the decisions that he made along with the reasons behind each decision, showing how hopeless situations can be turned around. If this was merely a book in a practical economics course, it would be a stimulating addition. If it was only a book of history or politics, it would be worth reading simply for its depth. It is a book that would benefit any management in how to turn a company around. It would benefit those in sales who need to learn how to turn every sale into a win-win situation. Bibi Netanyahu: It is the best kind of plagiarism that I could have, although I didn't know he said that, that's all right.

Bibi: My Story,” Benjamin Netanyahu On His Life And Times “Bibi: My Story,” Benjamin Netanyahu On His Life And Times

Bibi Netanyahu: Oh yeah, very much so. Because I want to assure, to the extent you can assure, it's potency, it's permanence, it's power, at least for the coming decades, and I think it's possible. Netanyahu and Trump attend the Abraham Accords signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, in September 2020. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Book Review | Bibi: My Story

Netanyahu now reveals that he deployed further visual aids for Trump, who even so early in his presidency was known not to read briefing papers, to become bored easily and to prefer advice framed in reference to his own interests. Peter Robinson: What gave you the intellectual courage to think such, not only independent, but almost, in an ideological sense, almost treasonous thoughts. I took the measure of the man,” he claims. Once upon a time, George W Bush claimed to have looked into Putin’s soul. We know how that ended. In contrast, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney and Joe Biden got the Russian leader right from the off.

Bibi by Benjamin Netanyahu | Waterstones

I don’t know what the future holds, but I feel confident and optimistic serving alongside these guys. Peter Robinson: The other way around, okay, all right. So if it's true that the United States now find itself in something like the same strategic box that Israel has always been in, outnumbered, often outspent. You have to be smarter, you have to be innovative. Bibi is a skilled writer. Emotions, drama, technical, political - it’s all there and none of it is over the top. I was most impressed with his discussions about Clinton, Bush, Obama and Tump. After reading Kushner’s account of the Abraham Accord, Bibi’s accounting added the much need Israeli perspective. His information on Middle East relationships and the subterfuge by high ranking members of various countries is fascinating. In writing his own history during the Bennett-Lapid interregnum, dictated when he was out of office, Netanyahu does not appear to have taken his own advice. Netanyahu’s autobiography is more Hollywood than history. The book is ‘Bibi-lite’, stripped of ideology and inconvenient facts — and made palatable for a diaspora audience. It is a stream of consciousness rather than a factual, informed life story. Netanyahu’s upbringing is extremely interesting. He came from a family of intellectuals, wedded to the Zionist idea. His grandfather, Rabbi Nathan Mileikowsky and his father, Professor Ben-Zion Netanyahu devoted their lives to the Zionist movement. His uncle was Professor Elisha Netanyahu of the Technion’s Mathematics department and biographer of Richard Feynman, the popular explainer of sub-atomic particles and theorist of quantum electrodynamics. Growing up in Talpiot in Jerusalem, Netanyahu was embedded in a unique intellectual milieu with neighbours such as Joseph Klausner and Shai Agnon.

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One wonders what he would have made of this book — perhaps this review provides at least part of the answer. Bibi Netanyahu: It has. People said, "Yeah okay, but the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." No they didn't, because the poor got actually, they actually, their income increased faster. But the most interesting part of the book are his discussions about policy and diplomacy - in his quest to protect the future of Israel. He provided detailed policy considerations for why, for example, he spoke to the US Congress against the JCPOA that was being negotiated by Obama with Iran. And he also provided lots of details about his negotiations with Obama with regard to the Palestinian conflict. As always the consummate diplomat, he was very respectful of the differences he shared with Obama on policy.