Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel's longest serving prime minister, with a total of 16 years of in office. In addition, he served as finance minister, defense minister, foreign minister, communications minister, and in other oists, some of them overlapping with his tenure as prime minister.
On May 24, 2020, Netanyahu's trial began in the Jerusalem District Court after indictments were filed against him for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. Thus, Netanyahu became the only Israeli prime minister to be indicted and stand trial for criminal offenses during his tenure.
Other prominent events during Netanyahu's tenure include the Gilad Schalit prisoner exchange deal of 2011, the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2021, advancement of judicial reform in 2023, and the massive protests against it.
On the morning of October 7, Netanyahu woke up and realized that Hamas had launched an attack that left the State of Israel, himself, and other intelligence and security officials surprised and in clueless. He faced criticism for allowing Hamas to strengthen itself and for refusing to take responsibility for the terrible incident.
At the beginning of the war, there was a public debate on the question of who was responsible, but the prime minister refused to acknowledge any fault or take responsibility. On several occasions, he said that everything would be investigated after the war ended. However, about a month later, Netanyahu said in an interview a US news outlet, that his responsibility is to protect the citizens of Israel.
The Jerusalem Post's sister publication Maariv showed Tami Elashvili, creator of a methodology for analyzing people through facial features, two pictures of the prime minister. The first was taken on September 28, 2023, nine days before the outbreak of war on October 7, and the second was taken almost four months after the onset of the war, on January 31, 2024. She analyzed Netanyahu's facial features in both pictures, and the findings were very interesting.
How has the war with Hamas changed Netanyahu?
According to Elashvili, in the picture taken before the war, the prime minister appears "less pessimistic, with thick eyebrows indicating self-confidence and charisma."
In the picture taken after the war, she explains: "His eyebrows are so thin they're practically non-existent. This indicates the aftermath of a severe trauma. The eyes are lifted upward, the lower part is white, indicating the intense pressure he is currently under. The sides of the lips indicate more fundamental pessimism than before the war. The eyes droop and narrow. Emotionally, he is shattered. The broad and square chin that characterized people with key managerial roles before the war has shrunk."
Elashvili further explained that "The hair before the war hides the forehead and after the war it is more exposed." This indicates "less concealment" after October 7. In her opinion, "after the war... he became very thin, and therefore his face is more angular."
She also noted that "untidy eyebrows indicate [that he is scattered], mentally and emotionally. Before the war they were neat. Now, they are not. This shows that before the war, Netanyahu was very focused, and knew what he wanted and intended to do. Everyone is aware of the fact that Bibi knows how to express himself. But the reality at the moment is different. Now it is evident that he is terribly emotionally and mentally scattered and does not know how to do things, and is in a whirlwind within himself. He is in a bad place emotionally, technically, and mentally."