Netanyahu in 2025: Living the Story He Wrote
The war in Gaza has dominated the headlines of the past two years. Now, as the smoke begins to clear, attention inevitably turns to the man who has stood at the center of Israel’s political life for nearly three decades: Benjamin Netanyahu. Revered by some and reviled by others, Netanyahu remains one of the most consequential leaders of the modern era.
His supporters granted him the longest mandates in recent history for a democratically elected head of government. His critics have labelled his actions in Gaza as war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity before the International Court of Justice. Yet whether one hails him as Israel’s protector or condemns him as its most divisive figure, one fact remains undeniable: to understand modern Israel, you must first understand the actions, motives, and perspective of Benjamin Netanyahu.
That understanding begins with Bibi: My Story, Netanyahu’s 2022 autobiography. The book, titled after his childhood nickname, arrived amid one of Israel’s most volatile political moments. The country was caught in a succession of inconclusive elections, as voters wavered between keeping and unseating the man who defined their politics for decades. Corruption trials and judicial controversies dominated the headlines, while supporters and opponents alike flooded the streets with competing visions of Israel’s future. Originally slated for later publication, the memoir was reportedly bumped ahead to coincide with new elections. In that context, Bibi: My Story reads less as a reflection than as a rebuttal to defend his legacy and remind Israelis why he believes he alone can safeguard their future. Regardless of its political intent, though, this book provides the most direct window into the mind of the man behind Jerusalem for the best part of thirty years.
Benjamin Netanyahu comes from a family whose story mirrors that of modern Israel itself. His father, Benzion, was a prominent historian whose work shaped the intellectual foundations of modern Zionism; his older brother, Yonatan, is remembered as the Israel Defense Force’s bravest warrior. Across more than 650 pages, Netanyahu traces how those roots forged his worldview. Readers follow him through a Jerusalem childhood lived within earshot of Jordanian shells, an American adolescence that somehow strengthened his Israeli identity, commando service that instilled a lifelong sense of existential struggle, and MIT studies and UN diplomacy that honed his strategic hasbara1 mind. Each episode reinforces the notion of Netanyahu being the indispensable guardian of a nation perpetually under siege, a conviction that has defined his long political career. This pattern is not accidental: his storytelling choices transform biography into ideology, turning personal struggle into a symbol of national resilience.
The book’s tone wavers between thriller and manifesto. Andrew Roberts, Baron Roberts of Belgravia, rightly describes the memoir as “a Tom Clancy novel written for a Tom Cruise movie adaptation posing as a normal politician’s memoir”. After all, few politicians can tell personal tales of infiltrating Beirut airport or near-drowning experiences in the Suez Canal under heavy Egyptian fire. This cinematic flair ensures that readers see him not as a politician, but as a soldier-statesman molded by destiny. Bibi tells of a leader who “feverishly” worked “eighteen to twenty-hour days”2 for the good of his country, and a pragmatist willing to “risk [his] career for what [he] thought was right.”3 Through these larger-than-life depictions, Netanyahu transforms his personal story into a political argument: his heroism becomes proof of his indispensability, and his survival under fire becomes a metaphor for the nation’s endurance under threat.
Yet what Bibi includes is as revealing as what it omits. Moments of introspection, like his regret over easing COVID-19 restrictions too soon, are rare. Criticisms of his early marriage scandals, corruption charges, judicial overhauls, and controversial international image are either denounced as hypocritical, mentioned in extreme brevity, disputed as factually incorrect, or attacked as hearsay. Netanyahu’s selective storytelling transforms criticism into evidence of persecution, allowing him to claim victimhood and vindication simultaneously. Such omissions reveal more than defensiveness; they expose a man who sees reflection as vulnerability and who equates control of the narrative with survival.
Netanyahu’s self-portrait rests on a consistent moral dichotomy. He presents himself as a steadfast defender of the Jewish people, a Churchillian figure whose instincts rarely failed him, but whose motives were often misunderstood. He casts a binary worldview between those who understand Israel’s existential peril and those who, in his view, enable or ignore it. Domestic rivals are dismissed as short-sighted, while international critics are labelled as biased, hypocritical, naïve, or antisemitic. By reducing complex political debates to binaries, Netanyahu transforms political loyalty into moral duty. In doing so, he fuses his personal story with the collective identity of his people, inviting readers to see devotion to him as indistinguishable from devotion to Israel itself.
Bibi tells the story of a warrior who rescued his comrades from hypothermia with condensed milk. The book is narrated by a courageous diplomat who established the Abraham Accords and a forward-thinking visionary who foresaw Iran’s nuclear threat. Yet media coverage around Netanyahu increasingly describes a populist whose polarizing rhetoric claims that Israeli Arabs are “voting in droves”. Many in Israel and abroad see a power-hungry opportunist willing to align with the far-right for political survival. International observers may find it lacking that ordinary Palestinian civilians are “missing from Netanyahu’s own story”. Together, these contrasting portrayals reflect his lifelong emphasis on security, deterrence, and survival over empathy and reconciliation, reinforcing his image as Israel’s guardian whose actions are justified by the dangers that continue to plague the nation.
Events have moved quickly since the book’s October 2022 publication. After a brief hiatus as leader of the opposition, Netanyahu returned to power, leading a coalition with elements labeled as far-right and Kahanist. Since then, Israel has experienced the October 7th attacks, full-scale war in Gaza, direct missile confrontation with Iran, and continued domestic political controversies. Internationally, Netanyahu’s government has met declining support from traditional allies on top of accusations of war crimes at the ICC. Yet the worldview that Bibi presents—one of deep conviction and stubborn political survival—continues to define his leadership and, by extension, Israel’s role in regional and global affairs.
Many questions remain unanswered for Benjamin Netanyahu. Knesset elections are due in 2026, and his coalition is currently polling below a governing majority. He is sure to face intense investigations for the failure to prevent the October 7th attacks. Normalization with Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu’s biggest goal, seems further off than ever. Unfortunately, this 2022 memoir cannot offer any concrete answers. But it can give readers a clue, for it offers a direct look into the instincts and convictions of the mind that shaped Israel’s destiny for the past thirty years. It doesn’t offer a holistic or unbiased picture, but the worldview it lays out will continue to shape Israeli politics into the near future. You may not agree with Netanyahu, but to understand modern Israel—how it arrived here and where it may be headed—you cannot ignore him, for better or worse, because Benjamin Netanyahu has woven himself into the fabric of Israel’s story.
1 Hebrew word that translates to explanation, but can also refer to strategic public relations and communication efforts by the Israeli government and its supporters to shape international perceptions and promote a favorable image of Israel.
2 Bibi, page 352
3 Bibi, page 361