The Netanyahu years /

Israeli journalist Caspit's biography of Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu, elected prime minister of Israel four times (1996, 2006, 2013, 2015), is superbly researched and balanced, even as he acknowledges that his subject can be frustratingly enigmatic. Caspit admires Netanyahu as a tough battler whose Bibi spirit has allowed him to survive and often thrive in Israel's fractured and tribal political landscape. His fighting instincts, Caspit suggests, were influenced by his devotion to his scholarly, right-wing father and his older brother, Yoni, who died leading the 1976 Entebbe raid. Although his personal religious practices aren't strictly Orthodox, Netanyahu has outraged many secular Jews by throwing bones to the extreme religious Right in Israel. But it is his role in the conflict with the Palestinians that Netanyahu's legacy will likely be judged, and here Caspit finds him wanting. He pays lip service to the two-state solution but undermines efforts to advance it and never offers any realistic proposals. This is an important and informative work for American readers, since Bibi is likely to continue to be a strategic partner for awhile.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2017 Booklist

Tel Aviv-based journalist Caspit writes an informed, balanced political biography of the controversial fourth-term Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Born in Israel and raised in the U.S., Netanyahu possesses political skills that often prove effective in both nations. Caspit traces Netanyahu's decades-long ties to the U.S. Republican Party, starting with his affinity for neoconservatism and big money donors when he was Israel's United Nations ambassador in the 1980s. Today casino magnate and Republican Party donor Sheldon Adelson, Netanyahu's U.S. patron, pulls strings for him in what the author depicts as a disturbingly backhanded relationship. Caspit describes outright hostility between Netanyahu and U.S. leaders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, heightened by disagreements over Iran's nuclear program, which led to Netanyahu's memorable, grandstanding 2015 visit to Congress. By Caspit's lights, Netanyahu's messianic self-conception, one that his family and inner circle encourage, constitutes a defining feature of his character, driving his "need to hold on to power at any cost." As captured in Cummings's remarkably fluid translation, Caspit's detailed, clear account covers Israel's domestic-policy disputes and Netanyahu's impact as a world leader. It also provides a vital guide to understanding Israel's influence on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Agent: Lynne Rabinoff, Lynne Rabinoff Associates. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Israeli journalist Caspit (senior columnist, Maariv; coauthor, Netanyahu) wrote this book while the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was, perhaps even more than the Russian president, attempting to influence the outcome of the U.S. election in favor of the Republican Party and his own reelection. Capit's book, with a faithful translation by Cumming, outlines Netanyahu's biography starting with his grandparents, then traces his political career, stressing his fraught relationship with the Obama administration. Caspit concentrates on Netanyahu's manipulations to gain and retain political power, influence (if unable to sabotage) the "Iran nuclear deal," and avoid meaningful negotiations for a two-state solution to conflict with the Palestinians. Caspit describes Netanyahu variously as "a Republican U.S. senator," a "political coward" and the self-anointed guardian of the security of the Jewish people, and he provides enough comment and analysis from those who have worked closely with Netanyahu over the past four decades to justify all of those characterizations. -VERDICT An important read for anyone trying to understand the politics and personality of the most prominent Israeli politician of the 21st century.-Joel Neuberg, Santa Rosa Junior Coll. Lib., CA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A biography of the steely Israeli prime minister that underscores his relentless, seemingly emotionless competitive drive.As a translation from the Hebrew, this account of Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu's career is nicely fluent. Longtime Israeli journalist and newscaster Caspit, a senior columnist for Ma'ariv, Israeli's leading daily, is unafraid of criticizing the extreme right-wing views and single-minded ambition of this problematic public figure. Several themes emerge from the author's chronicle of Netanyahu's formative years in Jerusalem. One of the most prominent is the extreme reverence his family had to pay to his studious, humorless father, Benzion, a scholar inculcated in the Revisionist Zionist ideology: right-wing, leaning toward the American Republicans, and uncompromising toward Palestinians, all of which eventually formed the backbone of the Likud Party and encapsulated his son's own views. Caspit touchingly emphasizes Netanyahu's devotion to his older brother, Yoni, a shining, handsome role model and elite Israel Defense Forces commando like Bibi who was cut down tragically during the Entebbe Operation in 1976. Perhaps the most important lifelong influence on Netanyahu was his early education in America (MIT and Harvard), which taught him to speak flawless English and, as his career in politics grew, court rich American Jews into bankrolling rightist Jewish interests and his own campaigns. With his good looks and pedigree, he became the "perfect poster boy for the Jewish community" and gradually worked his way into the Israeli embassy and then head of the Likud Party. He would be elected prime minister four times (1996, 2006, 2013, 2015), matching David Ben-Gurion's record. Caspit focuses on Netanyahu's ongoing stormy relationship with Washington, D.C., as he has firmly maintained that "Israel and America were equal players in the international arena" and seemed mystified whenever this was challengede.g., from President Barack Obama over Iran nuclear concessions. A highly readable portrait of an enigmatic politician. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.