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| Benjamin Netanyahu’s official portrait, April 2009. Photo: Avi Ohayon |
A Lifetime of Service Deserves a Fuller Accounting
The case for respecting Benjamin Netanyahu’s consequential service
By Jonah Ritter
I’m not writing another critique of Netanyahu. There’s no shortage of those. The criticism has become so one-sided that I decided the other side of his record deserved a voice. Fair-mindedness should mean examining the evidence—even when it complicates a favorite verdict.
Recently, I read Yossi Klein Halevi’s harsh assessment of Netanyahu’s legacy. Invoking King Saul, he portrayed Netanyahu as a gifted leader whose failures had eclipsed his promise. His description of a legacy of “scorched earth” prompted me to consider a fuller accounting of Netanyahu’s lifetime of service.
Benjamin Netanyahu has devoted decades—much of his adult lifetime—to Israel’s military, diplomatic, and political service. In my judgment, that record deserves better treatment than he receives from his detractors. That's what I aimed to do.
The People of Israel Have Spoken
Netanyahu formed six governments across a political career spanning four decades. That repeated ability to secure parliamentary support, including returning to power after defeat, represents an extraordinary achievement in democratic political endurance. His critics must reckon with the enduring support that made it possible.
Apparently, the voters in the Middle East’s only liberal democracy keep failing to choose the leader his critics would prefer.
History’s final judgment is yet to be rendered. In my judgment, Netanyahu ranks among the most consequential leaders in Israel’s history, with an influence extending far beyond its borders.
We cannot know what another prime minister would have accomplished in his place. Another leader might have avoided some of Netanyahu’s mistakes. There is no guarantee that the same leader would have achieved his successes.
Human nature makes it easy to compare a real leader with an imagined replacement who avoids every mistake while delivering every achievement. It is like asking a spouse to compete with a fantasy: the real person has flaws; the imagined one never faces a test. A fair comparison requires a plausible alternative, not a perfect invention.
If a country’s failures are evidence against its leader, its achievements must also be admissible evidence in his favor.
On Netanyahu’s Watch
Throughout Netanyahu’s years in national leadership, Israel has faced enemies committed to wiping it off the map. Against that background, consider the country that exists today compared with the country he first led in 1996.
Netanyahu brought to government a clear commitment to free-market capitalism. Educated in the United States, he earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from MIT in 1975 and a master’s degree in management from its Sloan School in 1976. That American business education provides important background to his economic outlook: private enterprise, competition, investment, and incentives were central to his approach to national prosperity.
Israel had developed an economy with socialist roots and extensive state ownership. Its move toward a more market-oriented system began before Netanyahu, but he became a major force in accelerating it. As finance minister under Ariel Sharon from 2003 to 2005, he pushed tax cuts, tighter government spending, privatization of state-owned businesses, and pension and welfare reforms intended to encourage employment and strengthen the economy. These were politically difficult changes aimed at giving private enterprise more room to grow.
This is more than assigning a politician credit for rising GDP. In its December 2004 assessment, the IMF credited the government’s reforms and commitment to competition with strengthening market confidence and laying foundations for future growth. The reforms had social costs, particularly for households affected by benefit cuts, and Israel’s economic transformation involved many leaders. Nevertheless, Netanyahu’s contribution was concrete: he helped move Israel further from state-directed economic management toward a more competitive economy driven by private enterprise. That belongs among his consequential achievements.
His approach also helped make Israel more attractive to investors and created more favorable conditions for entrepreneurship. Lower taxes, greater competition, and a larger role for private enterprise strengthened incentives to build businesses and invest in their success. The IMF’s December 2005 assessment explicitly credited the reforms with opening the economy, increasing competitiveness, and attracting foreign investment. Financial markets reflected the renewed confidence: the IMF reported a sharp stock-market recovery in 2003 and increased stock-exchange activity by 2005. Global recovery and improving security also contributed, but his policies helped create conditions in which Israeli enterprise could flourish.
Israel’s GDP grew from approximately $115 billion in 1996 to $611 billion in 2025. GDP per capita rose from approximately $20,200 to $60,300. These are current-dollar figures, not inflation-adjusted measures, and GDP per capita is not household income. They nevertheless document a substantial expansion of the economy and its output per person.
Despite years of boycott campaigns, exports of goods and services increased from roughly $28 billion to approximately $169 billion. Whatever costs BDS has imposed, it has not prevented Israel from greatly expanding its commerce with the world.
According to the Israel Innovation Authority, high-tech exports reached $85 billion in 2025. The sector employed approximately 400,000 people and generated 18.3 percent of GDP. Israel invests more than 6 percent of GDP in research and development, the highest rate in the OECD, which it joined in 2010.
Netanyahu’s tenure was not continuous, however, because of his unusually long leadership, the country's development belongs in the assessment of Netanyahu.
For a man accused of ruining Israel, Netanyahu has a rather inconvenient economic record.
Why the World Works with Israel
Countries buy Israeli software, electronics, medical devices, machinery, agricultural products, and natural gas. Israeli expertise helps address practical needs far beyond Israel’s borders.
- Israeli-founded Netafim serves farmers in 110 countries. NVIDIA acquired Mellanox for $6.9 billion, bringing Israeli networking expertise further into advanced computing infrastructure. NVIDIA also operates an AI research laboratory in Israel.
- Consider energy. Commercial production began at Tamar in 2013 and Leviathan in 2019. Israel became a natural-gas supplier to Egypt and Jordan. Those relationships give neighboring countries a material interest in continued cooperation.
- Consider water. By the end of 2025, operational desalination facilities supplied approximately 760 million cubic meters annually. Israel recycles nearly 90 percent of its wastewater, supporting agriculture in a region where water scarcity is a fundamental constraint.
- Under Netanyahu’s leadership, Israel made cybersecurity a national priority. His 2010 initiative led to the creation of the National Cyber Bureau in 2011, connecting government, academia, and private industry. The credit belongs to the researchers, entrepreneurs, and security professionals who built Israel’s capabilities, and also to leadership that helped turn their expertise into a source of national protection, economic opportunity, and international influence.
- Netanyahu has used intelligence cooperation to strengthen international partnerships, sharing warnings that help other nations confront terrorist threats. The credit belongs to the intelligence professionals who do the work, and also to leadership that makes those capabilities an instrument of diplomacy and shared security
These accomplishments represent resilience, usefulness, and influence. Israel has become a country whose capabilities other nations have practical reasons to value.
For a country its detractors insist the world should boycott, Israel certainly has a lot of customers. Perhaps Netanyahu deserves a Salesman of the Year award—though his critics would probably boycott the ceremony.
Taking Israel’s case to the world
Netanyahu’s personal diplomacy also broke new ground, with historic visits that expanded Israel’s international reach:
- U.S. Congress: Four addresses to joint meetings—1996, 2011, 2015, and 2024—more than any other foreign leader.
- Latin America, 2017: First sitting Israeli prime minister to visit the region, with stops in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico.
- Australia and Singapore, 2017: First sitting Israeli prime minister to visit either country.
- Sub-Saharan Africa, 2016: First official visit by an Israeli prime minister in approximately thirty years.
- India, 2018: First Israeli prime-ministerial visit in fifteen years; nine cooperation agreements signed.
For a leader accused of isolating Israel, that is quite a record of opening doors.
Israel's Voice on the World Stage
Another part of Netanyahu’s service deserves recognition: his ability to rise to historic occasions when representing Israel before the world. He has delivered speeches of extraordinary force before the United Nations and joint meetings of the United States Congress, bringing the Jewish people’s history, Israel’s security dilemmas, and the dangers confronting his country into the center of international debate. His 2015 address to Congress challenging the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran stands as a defining example. These were more than routine diplomatic appearances; they were moments when Israel’s prime minister commanded the world’s attention and made his country’s case with conviction, clarity, and commanding oratory. His fluent English and ability to frame an argument have helped him carry that case directly to audiences far beyond Israel’s borders.
For a small Jewish state whose actions are scrutinized worldwide, that ability matters. Israel needs leaders who can explain its security dilemmas, articulate its historical claims, and challenge the assumptions behind accusations against it. Netanyahu has repeatedly shown the confidence and skill to undertake that responsibility under intense pressure.
A powerful speech does not settle every policy dispute, and audiences have not always accepted his arguments. But disagreement with his positions should not obscure his effectiveness as an advocate. In my judgment, he belongs among Israel’s most accomplished public spokesmen. The voice with which a nation presents itself is part of leadership, and his has been a consequential voice for Israel.
Security Beyond the Headlines
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| Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of the US Congress, March 3, 2015. Photo: Caleb Smith |
October 7 exposed catastrophic failures in intelligence, preparedness, and civilian protection. Those failures demand accountability. But they do not erase the transformation of Israel’s defensive capabilities.
- Iron Dome became operational in 2011. David’s Sling and Arrow 3 entered operational service in 2017. Alongside Arrow 2, they form a layered missile-defense architecture unavailable when Netanyahu first took office. Greater capability does not guarantee sound judgment or readiness on every front. It remains a consequential achievement.
- Other countries recognize its value. Defense export agreements reached a record $19.2 billion in 2025, more than double their value five years earlier. Europe accounted for 36 percent, and Asia and the Pacific for 32 percent.
- In December 2025, Israel handed over Germany’s first operational Arrow 3 system. Consider that historical reversal: Germany now turns to the Jewish state for technology to protect its population against ballistic missiles.
- The American relationship also requires a fuller accounting than political friction alone provides. In January 2023, Israel and the United States conducted their largest joint military exercise to that date: more than 140 aircraft, approximately 6,400 American troops, and 1,500 Israeli troops. The CENTCOM commander described the military partnership as stronger than ever.
Disagreements between governments matter. Operational cooperation is also evidence of the relationship’s depth.
Apparently, when national survival is at stake, Israeli expertise becomes considerably less controversial.
Israel: A Regional Superpower
Under Netanyahu’s leadership, Israel has demonstrated the reach, intelligence capabilities, and military strength of a regional superpower. Its enemies have learned that distance, fortified headquarters, and clandestine communications do not guarantee protection.
Consider the consequential decisions made under his leadership:
- Approving the pager operation against Hezbollah, striking an organization that depended on those devices for communication.
- Targeting Hezbollah’s senior command, including the strike that killed Hassan Nasrallah.
- Taking the fight directly to Iran, including Israel’s first openly acknowledged military attack on Iranian territory in October 2024.
- Leading the government’s full-scale campaign against Hamas after October 7.
Soldiers, intelligence officers, and commanders deserve credit for planning and executing these operations. Netanyahu bore political responsibility for momentous decisions—and the risks of failure, escalation, and international confrontation. If leadership bears responsibility when decisions fail, it deserves recognition when they succeed.
Countries around the world are turning to Israel for security cooperation and military technology, including some of the world’s most battle-proven weapons and defense systems. Israel has become more than a nation fighting for its survival; it helps other nations defend theirs.
For the first time since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, I see the collapse of the IRGC’s machinery of terror as a possibility within reach. Alongside the dismantling of Hamas’s military power and the breaking of Hezbollah’s grip on Lebanon, that would represent a historic benefit to the region and the world. For Israelis, it offers the prospect of finally lifting the cloud of nuclear annihilation threatened by a regime committed to their country’s destruction. Netanyahu’s determination has helped bring that possibility into view.
Israel’s enemies promised to erase it from the map. On Netanyahu’s watch, they have instead been forced to contemplate their own downfall. That, too, belongs in the accounting of his leadership.
Building Peace, Bringing Our People Home
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| President Donald Trump, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. |
The Abraham Accords signing on September 15, 2020 should not be just a ceremonial bow. Normalization with the UAE and Bahrain, was followed by Morocco, and opened relationships beyond Israel’s existing peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. They demonstrated that Arab-Israeli cooperation could advance without waiting for a final resolution of the Palestinian conflict.
Consider Aliyah
The Jewish Agency’s decade summary, published in 2019, recorded approximately 130,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union, more than 38,000 from France, approximately 36,000 from North America, 13,420 from Latin America, and nearly 10,500 from Ethiopia. Netanyahu was prime minister for almost that entire decade.
His governments took specific actions as well. In 2015, his cabinet approved a NIS 180 million plan to encourage immigration and improve absorption from France, Belgium, and Ukraine.
Operation Dove’s Wings, completed in 2013, brought approximately 7,000 Ethiopian immigrants. Operation Zur Israel, launched in late 2020, brought another 2,150 people during its first phase, completed in early 2021.
These were practical undertakings to bring people home and reunite families while Israel continued confronting threats to its own population.
Service, Sacrifice, and Allegations
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Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu at the memorial for his brother Yoni, Mount Herzl Military Cemetery, Jerusalem, July 6, 1997. Photo: Amos Ben Gershom. |
An honest portrait should remember Netanyahu’s personal history.
His brother Yoni commanded Sayeret Matkal and died during the 1976 hostage rescue at Entebbe. Benjamin was not prime minister; the operation took place under Yitzhak Rabin. It cannot be counted as Benjamin’s achievement. But his family’s sacrifice belongs in our understanding of him. Terrorism, hostages, and Jewish vulnerability were matters of profound personal loss long before they became arguments over his political legacy.
The Discussion of Corruption also Deserves Precision.
Netanyahu’s reported annual base salary for 2026 was approximately NIS 738,000 (US $239,000), before taxes and excluding benefits and allowances.
A man with his education, intelligence, communication skills, international experience, and connections could plausibly have earned tens of millions of dollars over a lifetime in the private sector. Nobody can prove that alternative career. It is nevertheless reasonable to consider the earnings he might have pursued elsewhere when assessing his motives for decades of public service.
The gifts in Case 1000 were principally cigars, champagne, and some jewelry, valued by prosecutors at approximately NIS 700,000—roughly $200,000—over several years. Netanyahu says they were gifts between friends and denies wrongdoing.
Cigars, champagne, and some jewelry—give me a break! Compared with the wealth he could plausibly have accumulated over a lifetime in business, I regard those as trinkets. They are hardly evidence that his entire public life was devoted to amassing a fortune.
That comparison does not determine whether accepting the gifts or his dealings with the donors crossed legal boundaries. Prosecutors allege improper assistance to a donor; other cases concern alleged exchanges involving official favors and favorable media coverage. Those questions must be judged on the evidence. It is also fair to ask whether partisan agendas have shaped the pursuit and portrayal of these allegations—and whether political hostility has displaced a fair assessment of his overall record. Potential private-sector earnings neither prove nor disprove misconduct.
Specific allegations should not become a substitute for examining an entire lifetime. I reject the casual leap from disputed conduct to the sweeping portrayal of his service as an enterprise in personal enrichment.
Would another leader have received more grace?
I also question the implied assumption that another prime minister would necessarily have secured greater international understanding.
What would Israel have needed to forgo? The pager operation against Hezbollah? Strikes intended to reduce Iran’s and its proxies’ capacity to attack Israel? Would another leader confronting the same enemies have escaped accusations of genocide, apartheid, and colonialism? Would Israel’s ancient connection to Judea and Samaria have received a more sympathetic hearing?
These questions do not settle whether every policy or operation was justified. They challenge the assumption that international hostility can be explained primarily by Netanyahu’s personality. Israel’s adversaries have purposes of their own. A more agreeable prime minister would not necessarily have produced a more forgiving world—or a safer Israel.
We should also examine the lens through which his legacy is presented. In my judgment, much of Netanyahu’s coverage reflects a sustained hostility familiar to anyone following left-leaning media treatment of Donald Trump. Failures become defining characteristics; achievements receive brief acknowledgment before the prosecution resumes.
Neither man should be exempt from scrutiny. Journalists should scrutinize their own assumptions too.
History’s judgment is larger than an indictment
Consider Nixon. Watergate rightly remains central to his legacy. Yet it did not erase his opening to China or his other consequential foreign-policy achievements. The circumstances differ, but the principle applies: a leader’s gravest failures do not make his accomplishments disappear.
October 7 will forever weigh heavily on Netanyahu’s legacy. He was prime minister, and his responsibility must be examined. The military and Shin Bet investigations also acknowledged grave institutional failures. Political and institutional responsibility can coexist.
But if every success belongs exclusively to soldiers, scientists, entrepreneurs, diplomats, allies, or ordinary citizens, while every failure belongs to Netanyahu, the verdict is predetermined.
There are No saints in Politics
Halevi’s harsh “Scorched earth” critic is too sweeping a description of Netanyahu’s record.
Alongside the failures stand a much larger economy, expanded exports, formidable technological capabilities, new Arab relationships, regional energy ties, the continuing ingathering of our people, and defense systems that other nations purchase to protect their citizens.
The King Saul analogy is powerful writing but it supplies an ending that history has not yet written.
I cannot deliver history’s final verdict. I can insist that the case for respect be heard.
There is much more that could be said about Netanyahu’s contributions. No single article can do justice to a lifetime of consequential service. But the record presented here should make one thing clear: any fair assessment of his failures must also reckon seriously with his achievements.
If every Netanyahu failure confirms your judgment and every achievement requires an excuse, you’re protecting a prejudice, not practicing critical thinking.
Sources
Economic growth, investment, and technology:
- World Bank data, via the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: Israel’s GDP and GDP per capita.
- Israel Export Institute: historical economic and export statistics.
- Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs: 2025 export figures.
- Israel Innovation Authority: 2026 High-Tech Status Report.
- OECD: Israel country profile and research-and-development statistics.
- MIT News: Netanyahu’s degrees in architecture and management, November 7, 2001.
- Knowledge at Wharton: “Can Privatization in Israel Get Back on Track?” July 9, 2015.
- International Monetary Fund: assessments of Israel’s economic reforms, competition, investment, and financial markets, December 2003, December 2004, and December 2005.
- Netafim: company history and international operations.
- NVIDIA: Mellanox acquisition announcement and Israel AI Research Lab.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration: Israeli natural-gas production and regional exports.
- State of Israel: national disclosure filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2026.
- Japan’s National Institute for Defense Studies: January 2022 briefing on Israel’s cybersecurity policy.
- Government of Israel: Resolution 3611, “Advancing National Cyberspace Capabilities,” August 7, 2011; reproduced by George Washington University’s National Security Archive.
- Israel Defense Forces: operational histories of Iron Dome and David’s Sling.
- U.S. Department of Defense: Arrow 3 missile-defense testing and development.
- Israel Ministry of Defense: 2025 defense-export figures and the December 2025 Arrow 3 handover to Germany.
- U.S. Department of Defense: Juniper Oak joint military exercise, January 2023.
- Reuters: “Netanyahu Approved Pager Attacks Against Hezbollah, Spokesman Says,” November 11, 2024.
- Reuters: “Israel Had Real-Time Intelligence Nasrallah Would Be at Meeting, Military Says,” September 28, 2024.
- Associated Press: “Israel’s First Open Attack on Iran Targets Missile Sites and Apparently Spares Oil and Nuclear Ones,” October 26, 2024.
- Reuters: Shin Bet’s acknowledgment of failures surrounding October 7, March 4, 2025.
- Israel Democracy Institute: “30 Years Ago, This Week: When Mr. Netanyahu Became PM Netanyahu,” 2026.
- U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Historian: Foreign Leader Fast Facts and records of Netanyahu’s four addresses to joint meetings of Congress.
- U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian: Visits by Foreign Leaders—Israel.
- The Times of Israel: Netanyahu’s first official Latin American tour as a sitting prime minister, September 11, 2017.
- The Times of Israel: “Netanyahu Embarks on First Trip to Singapore and Australia,” February 2017.
- ABC News Australia: Netanyahu’s first visit to Australia as a serving Israeli prime minister, February 22, 2017.
- The Washington Post: Netanyahu’s first official visit to sub-Saharan Africa in approximately thirty years, July 5, 2016.
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “Israel, India Sign Nine Cooperation Agreements at Start of Netanyahu Visit,” January 15, 2018.
- Reuters: “What Are the Abraham Accords?” September 15, 2025.
- Jewish Agency for Israel: decade-of-aliyah summary, 2019, and historical accounts of Ethiopian immigration, including Operations Dove’s Wings and Zur Israel.
- The Times of Israel: cabinet approval of a NIS 180 million immigration and absorption plan, 2015.
- National Library of Israel: historical account of Operation Entebbe and Yoni Netanyahu’s role.
- Calcalist: 2026 official salary update.
- Investing.com: USD/ILS representative exchange rate, October 16, 2026; used for the approximate dollar conversion of annual salary.
- Reuters: reporting on Case 1000, including the alleged gifts, prosecution claims, and Netanyahu’s denial of wrongdoing; explanatory reporting on the three criminal cases.
