Benjamin Netanyahu
Israeli Prime Minister

Elected in May 1996 after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, Benjamin Netanyahu has faced the greatest challenge of his political career in negotiating with the Palestinians while holding together his volatile and fragile coalition government.

But he promised no less when he defeated Nobel Peace prize laureate Shimon Peres in 1996 by less than one percent of the vote and became the youngest prime minister in Israeli history.

Netanyahu said he would do better than his predecessors at battling Palestinian terrorism, and he promised to secure at least one peace deal by the year 2000.

With the signing of an interim agreement with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in late October 1998, Netanyahu got that peace deal and appeared to be a step closer to the final agreement called for in the Oslo peace accords.

Nicknamed the "Teflon prime minister" for his ability to survive crises, Netanyahu is skilled in the art of marketing both himself and his agenda. His savvy use of television sound bites and media polls has allowed him to survive scandals, political conflict and security crises in his short but tumultuous tenure.

Schooled in U.S.

Netanyahu, whose name means "God's gift," was born in Tel Aviv in 1949.

He owes his peace-with-security philosophy to his father, Ben-Zion Netanyahu, a history professor and proponent of the idea that the historical bitterness between Arabs and Jews makes for an intractable situation.

That philosophy has been the basis for Netanyahu's conviction that relinquishing territory to the Palestinians would not only be dangerous to the country's security, but also indicate a weakness in the country's psyche.

"The reason we have peace at all is because Israel is perceived as strong," Netanyahu told the Boston Globe. "If it becomes weak and vulnerable, the peace becomes weak and vulnerable. Anyone who doesn't understand that doesn't live in the Middle East."

Netanyahu attended high school in Philadelphia and college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received an undergraduate degree in architecture and a master's degree in business.

Despite success at an international business consulting firm, he found the lure of Israel too great and returned to Jerusalem in 1967. Netanyahu enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces and, while serving in an elite commando unit, was wounded in a rescue attempt during a hijacking at Ben Gurion Airport in 1972.

Founded terrorism institute

Netanyahu's brother, Jonathan, was killed in 1976 while leading a similar raid to free 103 hostages from an Air France jet hijacked by pro-Palestinian terrorists in Entebbe, Uganda.

Devastated by the loss, Netanyahu became outspoken about the threat of terrorism, and founded an institute named after his brother that sponsored an international conference on terrorism in 1979.

World leaders, including future U.S. President George Bush and future Secretary of State George Shultz, attended, prompting Netanyahu to turn his eyes to politics.

His first such job was as a deputy chief of mission at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Later, he became Israel's ambassador to the United Nations.

Netanyahu was elected to the Knesset as a Likud member in 1988 and was appointed deputy foreign minister. In 1993, he was elected Likud party chairman, and in May 1996 he became Israel's ninth prime minister.

'I am a winner'

Netanyahu has weathered various scandals, including allegations of cronyism, and has also endured the criticism that he was ignoring the terms of the 1993 Oslo peace agreement.

He has withstood the resignation of three key Cabinet ministers and had to deal with a series of Palestinian suicide bombings that followed the Israeli government's decision to erect Jewish housing in an Arab neighborhood.

Despite the criticism, Netanyahu has held his ground, yielding only when he's been able to secure terms that he believes are favorable to Israel.

And while he has been called a "serial bungler" and a "survivor," the man Israelis call "Bibi" says he is neither.

"I am not a magician," he told an Israeli newspaper. "I'm not a survivor. I am a winner."