Allegedly obsessed about his legacy, Netanyahu seems to be redefining his place in history

Has Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concluded time was running out for him to re­define his place in history?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 14. Picture: Israeli Government Press Office

A few days ago, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, let it be known he was thinking of taking a holiday somewhere in the north of his country. Instead, he was secretly planning the most ambitious gamble of his career, while desperately trying to ensure his enemies did not get wind of it.

The smoke has yet to clear over Operation Rising Lion, Israel’s full-scale, aerial assault on Iran’s senior military leadership and ­nuclear program but one thing it has demonstrated already is Netanyahu’s growing willingness to use military force to get his way.

Seldom had events seemed so propitious for action against Iran: a string of overwhelming victories against Iranian proxies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, in which Netanyahu ordered the killings of those organisations’ leaders, convinced him Israel’s military power could – and should – dictate the terms of regional ­security.

“With Hamas almost destroyed and Hezbollah on its knees, it was only logical the next military step would be Iran,” said Atila Somfalvi, an Israeli political analyst.

“Netanyahu is trying to break the Iranian stronghold on us.”

Israel’s longest-serving leader, who first took the country’s reins in 1996, has weathered coalition collapses, corruption charges, mass protests and the hostage crisis and war in Gaza to log more than 17 years in office across three premierships. For such a tenacious and wily operator as Bibi, as he is popularly known, this latest campaign carried weight far beyond mere military calculations.

He has had a difficult few years. The leader is a former member of an elite special forces unit responsible for some of Israel’s most daring hostage rescues, but the aura he liked to project as the guardian of Israel’s security was wrecked by the Hamas attack on Israel in Oct­ober, 2023, the deadliest in Israel’s history. Polls show that most Israelis blame the leader for the ­security lapses that allowed it.

Israeli army soldiers patrol near damaged houses in kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip, on October 18, 2023. Polls show that most Israelis blame Benjamin Netanyahu for the ­security lapses that allowed the Hamas attack on Oct­ober 7. Picture: Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP

He has subsequently been indicted by the International Criminal Court for possible war crimes related to Israel’s 20-month invasion of Gaza, which has reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble. Other polls, meanwhile, show that most Israelis believe Netanyahu is dragging out the conflict in Gaza to stay in power and avoid an election he would probably lose.

According to figures close to the leader, his legacy is a subject that has come to obsess him of late after so long in power. With the courts still investigating his allegedly corrupt conduct and his wafer-thin coalition majority once again looking vulnerable, the 75-year-old may have concluded time was running out for him to re­define his place in history.

The next election has to be held no later than October 27 next year. According to Mazal Mualem, a bio­grapher of Netanyahu and commentator, Netanyahu “wants to start his election year with a visible advantage”. Instead of being blamed for October 7, he “wants to be able to etch his role in the ­history of Israel as the statesman who defeated the Iranian nuclear program”.

The Israeli Prime Minister has for years been warning of the Iran­ian threat, presenting the Shia Islamist regime in Tehran as the greatest danger not only to Israel’s security but to the rest of the world’s democracies.

He has regularly likened his own fixation with Iran to Winston Churchill’s steadfast opposition to Nazism.

He has put up portraits of the British wartime leader in his office, a testament to his self-image as a modern bulwark against totalitarianism. His Churchill obsession extends to a taste for cigars.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directs the pre-emptive strike against Iran on June 13t. Picture: Avi Ohayon/Israeli Government Press Office

His Iran rhetoric was often dismissed by critics as alarmist brinkmanship, and segments of the domestic press sometimes scoffed at him. Only a few months ago, Tulsi Gabbard, the US Director of National Intelligence, testified to the Senate intelligence committee that there were “no credible signs of an active weapons program” being pursued by Iran.

Yet now, many voices in ­Europe and Washington echo Netanyahu’s urgency – even if, with the exception of US President Donald Trump, most world leaders have stopped short of praising Israel’s pre-emptive strikes.

Netanyahu’s worldview was shaped in part by his family’s past – by a brother who became a martyr and a father who believed history offered no mercy. His older brother, Yoni, commander of an elite Israeli special forces unit, was killed in the daring 1976 Entebbe raid to rescue hostages in Uganda, becoming a national hero and symbol of Israeli courage.

The last picture of Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu, taken shortly before his death leading Operation Entebbe in July 1976. Picture: Supplied

For Netanyahu, his death was not just a personal loss – it shaped his belief in decisive action.

Equally formative was Benzion, his father, a fiercely right-wing historian of the Spanish Inquisition. His staunch Zionism and deep scepticism of diplomacy instilled in his son an outlook steeped in historical grievance and a fear of Jewish vulnerability.

This influence is evident in Netanyahu’s suspicion of peace deals and conviction that weakness invites catastrophe.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with his father, Professor Benzion Netanyahu, in March 2012, less than a month before the latter died at home in Jerusalem, aged 102. Picture: Avi Ohayon/GPO via Getty Images

He has described the current attacks as necessary to curb the threat posed to his country by Iran’s growing stockpiles of enriched uranium and apparent desire to weaponise them. They have brought him immediate benefits on the domestic front, rallying the right-wing base and forcing centrist critics to choose between denouncing a prime minister at war or appearing soft on Iran.

Several parties that had threatened to leave his coalition over ultra-Orthodox military draft exemptions have been forced to shelve their grievances, at least temporarily, in deference to nat­ional unity. Protesters outside the courthouse where Netanyahu faces corruption charges have halted their chants – if only for a moment.

Yet the risks are profound. Strikes of this scale risk escalating into full-blown war that could engulf US regional assets and spark a wider conflagration. Iran has thousands of missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv. Its proxies have stockpiles of rockets ready to unleash. Netanyahu clearly hopes to reshape the Middle Eastern chessboard: he bets that the West will ultimately back his pre-emptive doctrine rather than condemn it outright.

In granite-faced addresses over the past 48 hours, Netanyahu has insisted that diplomacy with a ­nuclear-armed Iran is an illusion and that only decisive force could preserve Israel’s future. But as the dust settles over Natanz, Tehran and Tel Aviv, the world may wonder whether he has secured a legacy or steered the region on to a more perilous path.

For Netanyahu, who has navigated more crises than any leader in Israel’s history, June 13, 2025, may go down in history as a great triumph, or as the pivot that pushed the Middle East into its darkest hour.

THE SUNDAY TIMES