Netanyahu has served as the Likud leader for all but six years since 1993. He is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, holding the office from 1996 to 1999, 2009 to June 2021, and December 2022 to the present. Partially raised in the United States, he was a spokesman for the embassy in Washington and ambassador to the United Nations in the 1980s before entering the Knesset in 1988. He has criticized peace efforts such as the Oslo Accords, confronted Iran, courted right-wing extremists and been charged with corruption in ongoing cases. He was prime minister when Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023.
