The political positions of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel and leader of the right-wing Likud party, have largely been described as right-wing populist and nationalist. Under Netanyahu's rule, Israel has experienced authoritarianism, democratic backsliding, corruption, and expansionism. The Israeli Military Censor had long censored thousands of news articles annually. During the Gaza war, Israel intensified protest and news censorship, including reports about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Netanyahu's attempts to revamp judicial systems have been accused of being efforts to elevate authoritarianism and protect him from corruption charges; he in turn accused the "leftist Deep state" of attempting to weaponize the justice system against him and Israel.
He has made populist statements regarding anti-Arab racism involving narratives of conflict with Jews, in particular of anti-Palestinianism. Netanyahu's sixth government, serving from 2022 to 2026, has moved towards far-right politics and been described as the most far-right government in Israeli history. He has allied Israel with other illiberal, authoritarian leaders from Hungary, Russia, and the US.
Israeli–Palestinian conflict Netanyahu opposed the Oslo Accords. In 1993 he argued against the Oslo peace process in his book A Place Among the Nations. He asserted incorrectly that Amin al-Husseini had been a mastermind of the Holocaust, and Yasser Arafat was heir to the former's "alleged exterminationist Nazism". During his term as prime minister in the 1990s, Netanyahu reneged on commitments made by previous Israeli governments as part of the peace process, leading peace envoy Dennis Ross to note that "neither President Clinton nor Secretary [of State Madeleine] Albright believed that Bibi had any real interest in pursuing peace." In a 2001 video, Netanyahu, reportedly unaware he was being recorded, said:
In 2009, speaking at a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu promised not to repeat the "mistake" of the Gaza pullout, adding that "the unilateral evacuation brought neither peace nor security. On the contrary". He said, "Should we achieve a turn toward peace with the more moderate partners, we will insist on the recognition of the State of Israel and the demilitarization of the future Palestinian state". In 2014, Netanyahu said:
Netanyahu had previously called U.S.-backed peace talks a waste of time and refused to commit to the same two-state solution as had other Israeli leaders until 2009. He made statements which advocated an "economic peace" approach, based on economic cooperation and joint effort rather than continuous contention over political and diplomatic issues. This is in line with many significant ideas from the Peace Valley plan. He raised these ideas during discussions with U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. Netanyahu said: Right now, the peace talks are based on only one thing, only on peace talks. It makes no sense at this point to talk about the most contractible issue. It's Jerusalem or bust, or right of return or bust. That has led to failure and is likely to lead to failure again ... We must weave an economic peace alongside a political process. That means that we have to strengthen the moderate parts of the Palestinian economy by handing rapid growth in those areas, rapid economic growth that gives a stake for peace for the ordinary Palestinians."
In January 2009, Netanyahu informed Middle East envoy Tony Blair that he would continue the policy of the Israeli governments by expanding West Bank settlements, in contravention of the Road Map, but not building new ones.
In 2013, Netanyahu denied reports that his government would agree to peace talks on the basis of the green line. In 2014 he agreed to the American framework based on the green line and said Jewish settlers must be allowed the option of staying in their settlements under Palestinian rule.
For years Netanyahu backed Qatari transfers of hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza, in the hope it would pacify Gaza, turn Hamas into an effective counterweight to the Palestinian Authority and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. In 2019, Netanyahu said at a private Likud party meeting, "Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank." Often, cash was delivered in suitcases by a Qatari official escorted by Israeli intelligence. Netanyahu continued backing the payments as late as September 2023. In 2025, Shin Beth started an investigation into the alleged ties between Netanyahu's advisors and Qatar.
In January 2020, Netanyahu publicly supported Trump's Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. After the proposal failed, Trump said Netanyahu "never wanted peace" with the Palestinians. Former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stated that in 2017, Netanyahu showed Trump a fake video of Palestinian president Abbas calling for the killing of children. This was when Trump was considering if Israel was the obstacle to peace. Netanyahu had showed Trump the video to change his position in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords led to normalization of relations through the Israel–United Arab Emirates normalization agreement and Bahrain–Israel normalization agreement. This was the first time an Arab country had normalized relations with Israel since Jordan in 1994. The accords were signed by Bahrain's foreign minister, UAE's foreign minister and Netanyahu in September 2020 at the White House.
In October 2020, president Trump announced that Sudan would start to normalize ties with Israel. Sudan fought in wars against Israel in 1948 and 1967. Netanyahu thanked Trump, saying that "together with him we are changing history ... despite all the experts and commentators who said it was impossible. Israel was completely isolated and they told us we were heading into a political tsunami. What's happening is the absolute opposite." This was followed by the Israel–Morocco normalization agreement. In 2024, Pakistan officially designated him a "terrorist", calling him responsible for the atrocities in Gaza.
Economic views
By 1998, Netanyahu had a reputation as a free-market advocate, and in 1999 told the Jerusalem Post: "Peace is an end of itself [...] peace, without free markets, will not produce growth. But free markets without peace do produce growth.", quoting In his first term, he significantly reformed banking, removing barriers to investment abroad, mandatory purchases of government securities and direct credit. As finance minister (2003–2005), Netanyahu introduced a welfare to work program, a program of privatization, reduced the public sector, streamlined taxation, and passed laws against monopolies and cartels to increase competition. Netanyahu extended capital gains taxes from companies to individuals, which allowed him to enlarge the tax base while reducing taxes on incomes.Arik: The Life of Ariel Sharon, By David Landau (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 2014), Chapter 14. As the economy started booming and unemployment fell significantly, Netanyahu was widely credited by commentators as having performed an 'economic miracle'. Direct investment in the Israeli economy had increased by an annualized 380%.Foreign investment in Israel at record levels Globes, 26 September 2005, Zeev Klein. On the other hand, his critics have labelled his economic views as Margaret Thatcher-inspired "popular capitalism".The Political Right in Israel: Different Faces of Jewish Populism, by Dani Filc (Routledge, 2009), p. 65.
Netanyahu defines capitalism as "the ability to have individual initiative and competition to produce goods and services with profit, but not to shut out somebody else from trying to do the same". His views developed while he was working for Boston Consulting Group: "They wanted to do a strategic plan for the government of Sweden. I was on that case and looked at other governments. So I went around to other governments in Europe in 1976 and I was looking at Britain. I was looking at France. I was looking at other countries, and I could see that they were stymied by concentrations of power that prevented competition. And I thought, hmm, as bad as they are, ours was worse because we had very little room for private sector competition to the extent that we had government-controlled or union-controlled companies, and so you really didn't get the competition or the growth ... And I said, well, if I ever have a chance, I'll change that."
Views on counter-terrorism
Netanyahu has said his "hard line against all terrorists" came as a result of his brother's death. Yoni Netanyahu was killed while leading the hostage-rescue mission at Operation Entebbe.Thomas, Gordon. Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad, Macmillan Publishers (2009) p. 145
In addition to taking part in counter-terrorist operations during his military service, Netanyahu has published three books on fighting terrorism. He identifies terrorism as a form of totalitarianism, writing: The more far removed the target of the attack from any connection to the grievance enunciated by the terrorists, the greater the terror ... Yet for terrorism to have any impact, it is precisely the lack of connection, the lack of any possible involvement or "complicity" of the chosen victims in the cause the terrorists seek to attack, that produces the desired fear. For terrorism's underlying message is that every member of society is "guilty", that anyone can be a victim, and that therefore no one is safe...the methods reveal the totalitarian strain that runs through all terrorist groups... It is not only that the ends of the terrorists do not succeed in justifying the means they choose; their choice of means indicate what their true ends are. Far from being fighters for freedom, terrorists are the forerunners of tyranny. Terrorists use the techniques of violent coercion in order to achieve a regime of violent coercion.Netanyahu cautions that:The trouble with active anti-terror activities... is that they do constitute a substantial intrusion on the lives of those being monitored.He believes there is a balance between civil liberties and security, which should depend on the level of sustained terrorist attacks in a country. During periods of sustained attack, there should be shift towards security, due to "the monstrous violation of personal rights which is the lot of the victims of terror and their families". But this should be regularly reviewed, with an emphasis on guarding civil liberties and individual privacy wherever and whenever security considerations allow: "The concern of civil libertarians over possible infringements of the rights of innocent citizens is well placed, and all additional powers granted the security services should require annual renewal by the legislature, this in addition to judicial oversight of actions as they are taken in the field."
He advises tighter immigration laws as an essential to preemptively combat terrorism: "This era of immigration free-for-all should be brought to an end. An important aspect of taking control of the immigration situation is stricter background checks of potential immigrants, coupled with the real possibility of deportation."
He cautions that it is essential that governments do not conflate terrorists with those legitimate political groups that may or may not hold extremist views, but which advance their positions by means of debate and argument. Ronald Reagan was an admirer of Netanyahu's work on counter-terrorism, and Reagan recommended Netanyahu's book Terrorism: How the West Can Win to figures in his administration.
Death penalty