Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu ended his 12-year stint as Israeli prime minister on Sunday as a man of flawed character, who yet was one of the greatest world statesmen of our lifetimes.

Netanyahu’s decades of public service left Israel a vastly more prosperous, vastly more secure, vastly more respected state. Derided as a destabilizer and a warmonger, he left Israel, the entire region, and the world both more stable and more peaceful.