Prime Minister of Israel. After becoming chairman of the Likud Party in 1993, he was first elected Prime Minister in May 1996 in the state’s first direct election of Prime Minister and served until 1999. He was Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister from 1988 to 1991 and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office from 1991 to 1992. He became Prime Minister on again in 2009

Netanyahu’s previous posts were Israel’s Ambassador to the UN (1984-88) and Deputy Chief of Mission to the U.S. (1982-84). In the 13th Knesset (1992-1996) he was a member of the Knesset Committees on Foreign Affairs and Security and on Constitution, Law, and Justice. He was Finance Minister of Israel until August 9, 2005, having resigned in protest at the Gaza Disengagement Plan advocated by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Netanyahu retook the Likud leadership on December 20, 2005. As of December 2006, he is the official leader of the Opposition in the Knesset.

Before entering public life, Netanyahu, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, served as a soldier and officer in an elite anti-terror unit in the Israel Defense Forces (1967-1972). He is the editor of several books, including Terrorism: How the West Can Win (1986) and International Terrorism: Challenge and Response (1991). More recently, he wrote A Place Among the Nations: Israel and the World (1993) and Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism (1995).