Which israeli prime minister was born in iran

Although during the conflicts Israel had the support of the United States, its closest ally, relations between Mr Netanyahu and President Barack Obama were difficult. They reached a low point when Mr Netanyahu addressed Congress in March , warning against a "bad deal" arising out of US negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme.

The Obama administration condemned the visit as interfering and damaging. The advent of Donald Trump's presidency in led to a closer alignment between US and Israeli government policies, and within a year Mr Trump announced his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The move sparked fury across the Arab world - which supports the Palestinians' claim to the eastern half of Jerusalem occupied by Israel since the Middle East war - but it handed Mr Netanyahu a major political and diplomatic coup.

And in January , Mr Netanyahu hailed Mr Trump's blueprint for peace between Israel and the Palestinians as "the opportunity of the century", though it was spurned by Palestinians as one-sided and left on the table. Mr Netanyahu also saw eye-to-eye with Mr Trump on Iran, welcoming the president's withdrawal in from the Iran nuclear deal and reinstatement of economic sanctions.

After , Mr Netanyahu was dogged by a corruption investigation, which culminated in him being charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in connection with three separate cases in November Mr Netanyahu is alleged to have accepted gifts from wealthy businessmen and dispensed favours to try to get more positive press coverage.

He denies wrongdoing and says he is the victim of a politically motivated "witch hunt" engineered by his opponents. He went on trial in May , becoming the first serving prime minister to do so and defying calls by opponents to step down. Even under the cloud of criminal allegations, Mr Netanyahu survived three deadlocked general elections in less than a year and won a record fifth term, agreeing to share power with political rival Benny Gantz in a rare government of national unity established to deal with the coronavirus emergency.

Its collapse after only eight months triggered a fourth election in two years. Although the Likud won the most seats, opposition among other right-wing parties to Mr Netanyahu's continuation as prime minister meant he could not secure a majority. Instead, a spectrum of parties from far left to far right, backed by Arab MPs, formed a so-called "change government" in an arrangement never-before-seen in Israel, and in June mustered enough votes in parliament to take power, finally ending Mr Netanyahu's era.

Image source, EPA. That speech, based on evidence now known to have been erroneous, did nothing to sway the skeptical French, Russians and Germans. They eventually forced the frustrated United States and Britain to abandon their efforts to secure a green light from the United Nations for the March invasion of Iraq. In , the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi held up a copy of the U. It was his first and last U. Obama meets with Netanyahu at the White House in September Netanyahu addresses a joint session of the US Congress in May He said that he was prepared to make "painful compromises" for a peace settlement with the Palestinians, but he repeated that Israel will not accept a return to its pre boundaries.

Netanyahu uses a diagram of a bomb to describe Iran's nuclear program while delivering an address to the UN General Assembly in September Netanyahu exhorted the General Assembly to draw "a clear red line" to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman of the Likud-Beiteinu coalition party greet supporters as they arrive on stage on election night in January He accused Iranian President Hassan Rouhani of seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon and described him as "a wolf in sheep's clothing, a wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community. In December , Netanyahu called for early elections as he fired two key ministers for opposing government policy.

Netanyahu is greeted by members of US Congress as he arrives to speak in the House chamber in March He warned that a proposed agreement between world powers and Iran was "a bad deal" that would not stop Tehran from getting nuclear weapons. Netanyahu and his family take a vacation in southern Israel in April Netanyahu speaks to the press in Tel Aviv, Israel, in June A day earlier, two attackers identified as Palestinians opened fire at a popular food and shopping complex near the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, killing four Israelis and sending other patrons scrambling to safety.

Netanyahu visits Moriah College in Sydney in February It was the first time an Israeli prime minister had visited Australia. Trump visited Israel and the West Bank during his first foreign trip as President. Netanyahu, speaking at a security conference in Germany in February , holds up what he claimed was a piece of an Iranian drone that was shot down after it flew over Israeli territory. Netanyahu, giving a speech at the Ministry of Defense in April , accused Iran of "brazenly lying" over its nuclear ambitions.

He said Israel had uncovered files that prove his allegation and that the Islamic republic was keeping an "atomic archive" at a secret compound.

The Netanyahus cast their votes during Israel's parliamentary elections in April The election was seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's long tenure as prime minister. Netanyahu greets supporters in April Trump was incredibly popular in Israel — far more popular than he was in the United States. Exit polls for a repeat general election failed to give either of the political rivals a majority in the new parliament.

Likud won 59 seats in the general election but came up three seats short of a majority. The agreement normalized relations between Israel and the two Gulf nations. Netanyahu comes out of a Jerusalem courtroom during the evidence-hearing stage of his corruption trial in April Netanyahu faces charges in three separate cases.

He has denied the charges, describing them as a media-fueled witch hunt against him. Fighting erupted between Israelis and Palestinians on May 10 as Palestinian militants in Gaza started firing rockets at Israel, which responded with airstrikes across Gaza. It was one of the area's worst rounds of violence since the Gaza War.

Netanyahu delivers a statement in Jerusalem in May , after Naftali Bennett, leader of the small right-wing party Yamina, announced that he would be working toward a coalition agreement with Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist party Yesh Atid, to join a new government. Netanyahu denounced Bennett as a man who cared about nothing other than becoming prime minister. Netanyahu attends a special session to vote on a new government in June Naftali Bennett won a confidence vote with the narrowest of margins — 60 votes to 59 — ending Netanyahu's year grip on power.

Birth date: October 21, Birth place: Tel Aviv, Israel. In , he was employed by the Boston Consulting Group, but returned to Israel following the death of Yoni, his eldest brother, who was killed while attempting to free hostages from a hijacked Air France airliner in Uganda.

Netanyahu became highly involved in international counterterrorism efforts, which helped launch his political career. After serving in the Israeli embassy in Washington, D. During his time at the U. In , Netanyahu was elected a member of the Knesset Israel's parliament by the right-wing Likud party and served as deputy minister for foreign affairs. Five years later, he was elected chairman of the Likud party and its prime minister candidate. In , he was elected prime minister of Israel, defeating incumbent Labor candidate Shimon Peres.

Netanyahu served as prime minister until During his term, he signed the Hebron and Wye Accords, advancing the peace process with the Palestinians. He also expanded government privatization, liberalized currency regulations and reduced deficits.

After resigning from the Knesset following his election loss to his former commander Barak, Netanyahu worked in the private sector and toured on the lecture circuit.

He returned to politics in , serving as minister of foreign affairs before becoming minister of finance. On March 31, , Netanyahu was sworn in as prime minister for the second time, punctuating his victory by establishing a national unity government and calling for a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state. In his famous June address to Bar-Ilan University, he said, "I told President Obama in Washington, if we get a guarantee of demilitarization, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state, we are ready to agree to a real peace agreement, a demilitarized Palestinian state side by side with the Jewish state.

However, Netanyahu found himself at odds with the United States in November He objected to the deal reached between the U. According to CNN, Netanyahu blasted the deal as "a historic mistake," adding that "sanctions that took years to put in place are going to be eased.

The year brought great turmoil for the region, with conflict escalating rapidly during the summer between Palestinian military group Hamas and Israel after the killing of three teenagers.