In Israel, Netanyahu's ultimate legacy is the opposition he built
As Israel heads to the polls, Prime Minister Netanyahu's most lasting domestic legacy may be the right-wing opposition he faces.
Benjamin Netanyahu had barely reached the UN podium when a sea of delegates jumped out of their seats and began walking out in protest at the Israeli prime minister's address to the UN General Assembly in late September.
A smiling Netanyahu, who is seeking re-election later this month while on trial at the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Gaza, replied: "If there are any other moral cowards who have not left the hall, please do so now."
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The bottom of the list for his fans watching in Israel was exactly what they wanted to hear.
"When they see Netanyahu at the UN, that's what they want - and it's hard for them to imagine anyone else doing that," his former aide, Mitchell Barak, told Al Jazeera.
He added: "For many in Israel, but not all, he is the only man who can truly lead Israel. He makes them proud to be Jewish."
On October 27, Israel must choose between Netanyahu and a number of contenders who have united in all but their absolute opposition to Israel's longest-serving prime minister.
From the perspective of his supporters and opponents, as well as in most parts of the world, Netanyahu has become the face of modern Israel.
Born in 1949 in Tel Aviv to Benzion Netanyahu and Tezila Segal, he spent his early years between Israel and the United States. The few constants in his life were the deeply pessimistic views of his father—a right-wing historian who saw a world fundamentally opposed to the existence of Jews—and the military legacy of his brother, Jonathan, who was murdered in 1988. Israeli hostages kidnapped in Entebbe, Uganda.
Since then, Netanyahu has gone through several iterations.
In 1982, he was appointed as the deputy of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC. Two years later, he was appointed Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, before returning to Israel to join then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's cabinet as deputy foreign minister in 1988.
In 1996, Netanyahu became Israel's youngest prime minister, leading the first of a series of coalitions that also saw him serve a 12-year term from 2009 to 2021.
From the very beginning of his political career, he faced increasing accusations of deliberately engineering the division to further his political and personal goals.
Nimrod Flashenberg, a political analyst, said: "Netanyahu is the perfect embodiment of Israel's political polarization." Describing Netanyahu as "always" in "combat mode," he said the Israeli leader is "very good at building coalitions that reflect public opinion, as well as directing that opinion in his direction."
Under Netanyahu, Israel has continued to move to the right, rejecting the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict initiated by assassinated Yitzhak Rabin. At the same time, a large segment of the Israeli electorate has also become accustomed to the violent expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and has reconciled itself to the genocide in Gaza following the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas - with many still blaming Netanyahu for his multiple failures since the war, as well as his security measures.
In July 2018, Netanyahu's coalition passed the nation-state law, declaring the right to national self-determination "exclusive to the Jewish people," stripping Arabic of its status as an official language, and making the development of Jewish settlements a national value. In the wake of this law, settler violence has increased in the occupied West Bank, with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recording 1,291 attacks in 2023 and 1,835 in 2025. At least 1,071 Palestinians, including 233 Israelis, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or 233 children. in 2023, according to OCHA, while a senior UN official called it "virtually unresponsive".
Immediately, Netanyahu's current coalition has some of Israel's most controversial figures - such as National Security Minister Itamar Benguir, convicted of inciting racism and supporting a "terrorist" group, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is openly pro-settlement - at the heart of power.
Aida Toma-Soliman, a former MP from the left-wing Hadesh party, said: Netanyahu did not create racism and fascism in Israel, but he contributed to it. He is smart. "He knows exactly what he is doing when he puts people like Smotrich and Benguer in his government, and he knows the result of these appointments."
"He thrives on chaos," said Barak, a former Netanyahu aide in the 1990s. "He's all about the big picture, the means justifying the ends."
Underlying the Prime Minister's recent military campaigns have been his long-standing battles against any form of domestic judicial restraint. Embattled in corruption cases dating back to 2019, which could land him in prison if convicted, he is locked in a confrontation with the same legal entity that is trying to impeach him.
In January 2023, he and his right-wing allies sought to overhaul the judiciary, removing much of the court's oversight of government actions. The proposals led to protests on an unprecedented scale, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets to protest the controversial move. In June 2024, Netanyahu went so far as to suggest that the division created by his reforms was somehow responsible for his strong reaction to the October 7 attack.
However, with polls showing Netanyahu's Likud party and its allies tied with a broad anti-Netanyahu bloc of similar right-wing and militaristic parties, the prime minister's support has weakened. Likud won 32 seats in the 2022 election, but most polls predict around 20 to 22, and former supporters appear to have switched to either the opposition or far-right parties.
Netanyahu's opposition coalition has yet to name an official leader, but former army chief Gadi Eisenkot is seen as its most likely candidate for prime minister.
"We have to be clear about this," Barak said. He goes essentially unopposed. "This is Netanyahu against the opposition coalition."
"Think about it," Touma-Soliman said, referring to double standards after the prominent leader of a party representing Palestinian citizens of Israel was forced to withdraw from an election over his comments on the Gaza war. He has helped create a system where Sami Abu Shahadeh, the Arab criminal, is barred from running, and he, the war criminal who led his country through genocide, is not.
Flashenberg noted that for his supporters, Netanyahu "remains the only possible leader of Israel." But to his detractors, "he is the devil. He is the personification of corruption, responsible for everything leading up to October 7 and everything after."
However, his ultimate legacy may still exist, the analyst suggested earlier, recalling the words of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who once cited the opposition's shift to the right as her greatest legacy.
"Netanyahu's legacy is in the hands of the opposition," said Flashenberg. "All the main rivals are right-wing, militaristic and ultimately racist." This is Netanyahu's legacy."