Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu currently faces a number of complicated legal challenges. He is under investigation for allegations of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
But it would be premature to suggest that the sun is setting on his leadership. Over the last four decades, Israel’s great orator and master politician has managed to dramatically advance Israel’s diplomatic standing, and his support at home and abroad continues to grow.
From his time as Israel’s United Nations ambassador until today, Netanyahu has endured the wrath of his adversaries for his insistence on putting Israel’s security and national interests in the way of their ambitious plans. He shares the philosophy of his late father Benzion and ideological mentor Ze’ev Jabotinsky — that Israel’s success demands that it always act from a position of unwavering strength.
Tired of the red tape and socialism that Israel was founded upon, Netanyahu personally transformed the country into a prosperous free-market economy, attracting many of the world’s leading multinational corporations and pushing Israel’s economy into overdrive. As the global economy dove, the shekel only grew stronger under his leadership.
Unwilling to accept the naive notion that the Palestinians would put down their arms in exchange for the gift of land, Netanyahu reframed the conflict and the peace process by demanding Palestinian acceptance of Israel’s right to exist. Without this, he reasoned, the conflict would never cease. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s recent tirades have only strengthened this point, pushing a peace deal ever further from anyone’s reach.
As the world condemned Jews for building in Judea, he quietly and astutely worked to ensure that Israel maintained its strategic ancestral highlands; by supporting natural growth and advancing construction when prudent. The Israeli population of Judea and Samaria has more than doubled since he first came to office. The town of Efrat, where I serve as mayor, will have grown by 60 percent in his last decade in office.
Above all else, he spent thirty years warning the world of the threats of radical Islam and Iran. Like Jabotinsky’s call for Jews to evacuate Europe before the Holocaust, Netanyahu’s message fell on mainly deaf ears until the great American political upheaval of 2016, which bought his old friend and ally to the White House.
If President Trump’s recent cabinet reshuffle is anything to go by, Netanyahu’s message on Iran has finally arrived. The Netanyahu doctrine is clear: Diplomacy is built though strength and shared national interests. Once he had built Israel into an economic and military superpower, the nations of the world would begin to put their differences aside and come knocking on Israel’s door for assistance.
India, China, and now countries across Africa have all realized the advantage of having strong diplomatic relations with Israel. The world finds itself more and more in need of Israel’s intelligence and security capabilities. Because Netanyahu positioned his country to receive and thereby earn their respect with its cutting-edge technology and thriving economy, many have come to accept Israel as a necessary strategic partner.
Netanyahu has shown that diplomatic shortcuts with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may assist Israel diplomatically in the short run, but that in the long run, as the Second Intifada and the Gaza disengagement proved, it ultimately makes life worse for both Israelis and Palestinians.
The Netanyahu doctrine is now cornerstone of Israel’s foreign policy, applied by its diplomats across the world. He brought the realization that strength is what keeps war away, and that countries’ own self-interests are what unite nations.
There is no doubt that the most important trial that Netanyahu faces and continues to face is the trial of history. No matter what happens in the ongoing investigations, the Netanyahu years will be viewed as the time when a tiny country, surrounded by vicious enemies bent on her destruction, became the economic envy of the world and achieved unprecedented diplomatic success.
Oded Revivi is mayor of Efrat and Chief Foreign Envoy of the YESHA Council, which represents the 450,000 Israeli residents in Judea and Samaria.
