Benjamin Netanyahu Editorial Image

Benjamin Netanyahu has served twice as Israel's Prime Minister. His first government was from 1996 to 1999, and his second stewardship began in 2009 and continues until the present (2012). He has also served as Foreign Minister, Finance Minister, and Ambassador to the United Nations. As such, Bibi, as is his nickname, has articulately and forcefully put forth Israel's case in international forums in perfect American-accented English. He attended high school in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a BA degree in architecture. He later received an MA degree in business, also from MIT. Binyamin (his Hebrew name) Netanyahu is Chairman of the Likud Party and helms a right-wing coalition government and is known as a hard-liner in his stance with the Palestinians and is an implacable foe of a potentially nuclear-armed Iran. This photo was taken in the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, Israel, on July 20, 1997. To his rear is the Israel national emblem or escutcheon. It contains a menorah in its center, flanked by olive branches. On the bottom is the hebrew word for Israel.