Binyamin Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv in 1949 and grew up in Jerusalem. He spent his high-school years in the United States.
Returning to Israel in 1967, he served as an officer in an elite anti-terror unit in the IDF. He received a BSc in architecture and an MSc in management studies from MIT, and studied political science at Harvard University.
In 1982, he was a member of the first delegation to the talks on strategic cooperation between Israel and the US and served as ambassador to the United Nations for four years.
In 1988 he was elected to the 12th Knesset as a Likud member and was appointed deputy foreign minister. As chairman of the Likud Party since 1993, he was elected prime minister in May 1996.
Following his defeat in the 1999 elections, he resigned from the chairmanship of the Likud and from the 15th Knesset.
In November 2002 Netanyahu was appointed foreign minister. He is the author of several books and the father of three children. |