Netanyahu has reinvented himself. Will voters think it’s enough?
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At 77, Benjamin Netanyahu is already Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Isabel Kershner
- Benjamin Netanyahu has remade himself after the Oct 7 attacks, shifting from cautious leader to hardline wartime prime minister who promises to “complete the elimination of the Iranian regime”.
- He faces a tight election against Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition, with polls showing Likud slightly behind but still able to build a coalition through loyal supporters and allies.
- Critics say he avoided responsibility for Oct 7 failures, prolonged the Gaza war to keep far-right partners, and deepened Israel’s isolation through settlement expansion and a new security doctrine.
AI generated
HOLON, Israel – Benjamin Netanyahu looks thinner and paler these days. Gone is the swagger of previous political campaigns. But he remains tireless, traipsing among shopping centres and television studios, trying to persuade a weary and polarised country to return him to office for up to another four years in Israeli elections on Oct 27.
At 77, he is already Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. If he is to extend that tenure, he has to sell the deeply divided electorate on the new, more hawkish version of himself – and of Israel.