Benjamin Netanyahu

Some Lesser Known Facts About Benjamin Netanyahu

• Does Benjamin Netanyahu drink alcohol?: Yes 

• He was born in Tel Aviv Israel to a Warsaw-born father and an Israeli-born mother.

• He found via a DNA test that he also has some Sephardi Jewish ancestry.

• He attained his Primary education in Jerusalem. His 6th-grade teacher said that he was polite, courteous, and helpful; that Netanyahu’s work was ‘punctual & responsible’; and that he was disciplined, friendly, brave, cheerful, and obedient.

• He lived with his family in Philadelphia (USA) between 1956 and 1958, and again from 1963 to 1967.

• In 1967, he returned to Israel and served for 5 years as a combat soldier in the Israel Defense Forces.

• During the 1967–70 War of Attrition, he took part in various cross-border assault raids and rose to become a team leader in the unit.

• In May 1972, he was shot in the shoulder while rescuing the hijacked Sabena Flight 571.

• In 1973, he took part in the Yom Kippur War.

• At the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), he completed his SM Degree (Master of Science) in just 2 and half years (that would normally take 4 years).

• During his stay in the United States, he changed his name to ‘Benjamin Ben Nitai’ to make it easier for Americans to pronounce his name.

• While pursuing his doctorate in 1976, his older brother Yonatan Netanyahu was killed in a counter-terrorism hostage-rescue mission Operation Entebbe.

• Between 1976 and 1978, Netanyahu worked as an Economic Consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in Boston, Massachusetts where he was a colleague of Mitt Romney and developed a lasting friendship with him.

• He returned to Israel in 1978 and ran the Jonathan Netanyahu Anti-Terror Institute (an NGO devoted to the study of terrorism).

• He made his first connections with Israeli politicians during his stint as the director of marketing for Rim Industries in Jerusalem from 1980 to 1982.

• While living in New York during the 1980s, he became friends with Fred Trump (father of Donald Trump).

• In June 1996, he became the youngest ever Prime Minister of Israel.

• In September 1996, he met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the first time. 

• In August 2005, he resigned from the post of Minister of Finance in protest over the plan to withdraw Jewish settlers from Gaza & return their land to the control of Palestine.

• In September 2010, Netanyahu met with Barack Obama (the then President of the United States) in Washington to restart peace talks between Israel and Palestine. 

• In February 2017, he met Donald Trump (the US President) and praised his leadership handling the threat of terrorism.

• He is very fond of Ice Cream and according to sources, his average consumption is 14 kg of Ice Cream/week. 

• On 27 May 2024, he made a public statement to acknowledge a “tragic mishap” after an Israeli strike killed at least 45 people, including 12 women, eight children, and three older adults, in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on 26 May 2024.

• On 17 June 2024, he dissolved a six-member war cabinet after the member of the Israeli Knesset Benny Gantz resigned from the emergency government of Netanyahu.