Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest~serving PM

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel’s longest serving prime minister. He was born in Tel Aviv in 1949, the year after the State of Israel was founded. One of three brothers, Netanyahu spent much of his early years in the United States pursuing his education. But following his older brother’s death, Netanyahu found himself drawn into a career in the public eye. Using his military experience to advise on security matters, in 1984 Netanyahu became Israel’s Ambassador to the UN and established himself as a champion of Israel on the international stage. He returned to Israel and entered the world of politics; in 1993, he became the leader of the Likud party, and was elected prime minister in 1996, a position he has held for much of the following decades. Mark Coles profiles the longest-serving Israeli prime minister.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:06.0	Hello, I'm Mark Coles, and for the documentary from the BBC World Service,
0:10.7	we are profiling the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
0:25.4	It was meant to be what President Trump has called a little excursion.
0:33.3	A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.
0:38.9	They have no Navy. They have no Air Force. It's all been blown up, and they have no leadership.
0:40.0	It's all gone.
0:46.3	But three weeks in, and there's still no end in sight to the joint U.S. Israeli war with Iran,
0:49.0	the conflict spreading across the Middle East region.
0:57.7	Oil and gas prices spiraling, confusion about what the end game is.
1:02.7	Some believe America wouldn't be bombing Iran if it wasn't for this man, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
1:05.6	History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world's most dangerous regime,
1:11.9	the world's most dangerous weapons.
1:14.5	The longest serving Prime Minister in the history of Israel.
1:17.6	He's dominated his country's politics for a generation.
1:20.7	This is the war he's always sought,
1:22.8	the culmination of a lifetime obsession with the threat from Iran.
1:28.2	Iran has never given up its quest for nuclear weapons. Iran has never given up its quest for nuclear weapons.
1:31.8	Iran will be capable of producing nuclear bombs within three to five years.
1:37.3	Time is running out.
1:40.3	He's tried and failed to get U.S. Democrat administrations involved militarily in the past.
1:46.2	With Trump, it seems he's found a willing partner to wage war against the Iranian regime.
	...

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