Benajmin Netanyahu is the longest-standing Prime Minister of the State of Israel.  He was elected in his forties for his first term, lost his reelection bid a few years later, but then reemerged within 6 years to recapture the leadership of the dominant Likud Party.  Since then, he continues, time and again, to be reelected to lead Israel’s Knesset as the Prime Minister of Israel.  He has even served longer than David Ben-Gurion.

What is his secret?  Some call him a political genius.  Some say that he has succeeded in convincing such a large part of the electorate that he is Mr. Security, and therefore, he continues to rely on his reputation to scare away any would-be opponents.  Others claim that he was simply the right leader for the right time when Israel faces so many existential threats.  

It seems that this video of a young and fluent Benjamin Netanyahu affords us a solid understanding of the convictions of Israel’s future Prime Minister.  He doesn’t flinch when attacked and has an excellent command of Israel’s history.  He doesn’t let himself get put into a corner, and knows that there is indeed nothing that is more important to the State of Israel than it’s very existence.  That is the core nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict.  It is a battle for the very existence of the State of Israel.

This short video was taken at a time when Benjamin Netanyahu was still dealing with the fresh memory of his older brother’s lead of the miraculous rescue of 101 hostages in Entebbe.  They had been hijacked by a group of terrorists that were hell-bent on breaking the back of the State of Israel in order to free their brothers in arms who were in Israel jails.  The younger Netanyahu knew all about the Israeli Army soldiers who went on this rescue mission.  He had once been in the very same unit that performed the mission.  What motivates the young Israeli soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces is the understanding that we have no choice.  Either we defend the State of Israel from terror in all of it’s forms, or terror will eat up the State of Israel.