The Documentary Podcast · BBC World Service

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest~serving PM

·33 min·3 clips

How did the death of his brother in a daring hostage rescue thrust Benjamin Netanyahu into becoming Israel's future leader?

BBC journalist Mark Coles presents a documentary profile of Benjamin Netanyahu against the backdrop of a spreading US-Israeli military conflict with Iran that has closed the Strait of Hormuz and is driving global oil prices past $100 a barrel. The documentary opens with the immediate geopolitical crisis: Iran's new supreme leader has issued a statement demanding the Strait remain closed, and three weeks into the war there is no clear end game. Sources argue this conflict is the culmination of a lifelong obsession Netanyahu has held with the Iranian nuclear threat, which he has repeatedly stated would materialize within three to five years across multiple decades of warnings. Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv in 1949, the first Israeli prime minister born in the state itself, and grew up in a secular but socially conservative household deeply shaped by Zionist ideology and the shadow of the Holocaust. Journalist Bethan McKernan, former Guardian Jerusalem correspondent, describes Netanyahu as someone with very strong ideas from early childhood about Israel's future and security. Analyst Gil Hoffman argues Netanyahu absorbed the central lesson of never allowing another Holocaust, a framework shaping every major decision of his career. The documentary traces his time at MIT and Harvard, his military service in an elite unit, and his emergence as a political figure partly shaped by the death of his brother Yoni at Entebbe in 1976. Contributors present deeply contradictory assessments: admirers say he is the man best placed to protect Israel; critics argue he has polarized Israeli society and used external threats to avoid accountability for corruption charges. The documentary acknowledges that Netanyahu secured the US military partnership he sought for decades by cultivating Trump, and this would not have happened under Biden. The tone is serious and multi-sourced, presenting contested evidence without resolution. The audience is anyone wanting context on Netanyahu, the Iranian conflict, or Israeli political history.

As heard by us

A measured portrait of Netanyahu's rise and his long warnings about Iran.

The episode treats Benjamin Netanyahu as the central figure in Israel's long argument with Iran and, by extension, its own future. It moves from his early role as an English-speaking defender of Israel on American TV to his quick rise in domestic politics and the Likud…

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Why you'd press play

Hear how Netanyahu's Iran warnings became a defining political habit.

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