Bibi: My Story

by Benjamin Netanyahu Narrated by David Marantz

Overview

In Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu's “compelling” (The Economist) and “fascinating” (The Wall Street Journal) New York Times bestselling autobiography, the prime minister of Israel tells the story of his family, his path to leadership, and his unceasing commitment to defending his country and securing its future.

From their earliest days, Bibi and his close-knit brothers, Yoni and Iddo, were instilled with purpose. Born in the wake of the Holocaust at the dawn of Israel's independence and raised in a family with a prominent Zionist history, they understood that the Jewish state was a hard-won and still precarious gift. All three studied in American high schools-where they learned to appreciate the United States-before returning to their cherished homeland.

The brothers joined an elite special forces outfit of the Israeli Defense Forces known as “the Unit.” At twenty-two, Bibi was wounded while leading his team in the rescue of hostages from a hijacked plane. Four years later, in 1976, Yoni was killed in Entebbe, Uganda, while leading his men in one of the most daring hostage-rescue missions in modern times. Yoni became a legend; Bibi felt he would never recover from his grief. Yet, inspired by Yoni's legacy and guided by the wisdom of his visionary historian father, Bibi thrust himself into the international struggle against terrorism, ultimately becoming the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history-an honor he further cemented by winning reelection in 2022.

In this memoir Bibi weaves together his gripping personal story with the dramatic history of Israel and the Jewish people. Through a host of vivid anecdotes, he narrates his own evolution from soldier to statesman, while providing a unique perspective on leadership, the fraught geopolitics of the Middle East, and his successful efforts to liberate Israel's economy, which helped turn it into a global powerhouse of technological innovation.

Netanyahu gives colorful, detailed, and revealing accounts of his often turbulent relationships and negotiations with Presidents Clinton, Obama, and Trump. With eye-opening candor, he delves into the back channels of high diplomacy-including his struggle against the radical forces that threaten Israel and the world at large, and the decisive events that led to Israel's groundbreaking 2020 peace agreements with four Arab states.

Offering an unflinching account of a life, a family, and a nation, Netanyahu writes from the heart and embraces controversy head-on. Steely and funny, high-tempo and full of verve, this autobiography will stand as a defining testament to the value of political conviction and personal courage.

Editorial Reviews

DECEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

Benjamin Netanyahu’s audiobook memoir is not likely to change any opinions about the Israeli politician known as Bibi, but it does offer insights into every chapter of his life, from his youth to the most recent controversies. The audio version also benefits from the performance of narrator David Marantz, whose clean, professional style complements Netanyahu’s own delivery, which can be dry at times. Regardless of who is narrating, the audiobook offers a comprehensive overview of Netanyahu’s life. Supporters will embrace the work, while critics will find it self-serving. Either way, Marantz is critical to the audiobook’s success. His delivery avoids any sense of ego while highlighting the emotional life of a politician who continues to seek power no matter what challenges lie ahead. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

11/07/2022

This self-serving autobiography by former Israeli prime minister Netanyahu (A Durable Peace) begins with a flashback to his time in a special unit of the Israeli Defense Forces, recounting a 1972 raid on a plane held by Palestinian terrorists, then moves more or less chronologically through his life and career. Born in Israel in 1949, Netanyahu served in the military during the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War before completing his education at MIT. Recounting his two terms as prime minister (1996–1999 and 2009–2021), Netanyahu dismisses serious allegations out of hand, including the 2019 corruption charges that led to his indictment and for which he is currently on trial. He also rejects any responsibility for the violent rhetoric that contributed to then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination in 1995, claiming that those charges were ginned up by “my antagonists in the press and on the political left.” Elsewhere, the amount of detail about Netanyahu’s policies, including welfare reforms related to per-child allowances, is more than most non-Israelis will find interesting. There’s little newsworthy here (Netanyahu alleges without evidence that President Obama gave Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas a “secret commitment to establish a full-fledged Palestinian state before he left office”), and readers looking for insights into Netanyahu’s two marriages and other personal matters won’t find them. This superficial account won’t sway Netanyahu’s critics. (Oct.)

From the Publisher

"For his admirers and critics alike, he has produced a compelling memoir and an intriguing study of power."
— The Economist

"Bibi is as polished, argumentative and fascinating as its author, a restless work in progress whose story is that of modern Israel."
— The Wall Street Journal

“Benjamin Netanyahu's autobiography is one of history’s great Zionist texts. Most politicians’ autobiographies are turgid affairs . . . Then there is Benjamin Netanyahu’s autobiography, which is not a politician’s autobiography at all, but an adventure story dressed up as one. It is a Tom Clancy novel written for a Tom Cruise movie adaptation, posing as a normal politician’s memoir.”
— Claremont Review of Books

"After a stunning victory, Netanyahu is returning as Israel’s next prime minister . . . Now, therefore, is the perfect moment to take a closer look at who Netanyahu really is . . . not your run-of-the-million campaign autobiography, most of which are tedious and boring and not worth the paper they are printed on . . . This is an incredibly well-written, captivating – at times, spell-binding – account of his triumphs and trials. And it is a must read for every Evangelical who loves Israel and prays for the peace of Jerusalem.”
— All Israel News

"In the latest election, Netanyahu accomplished what few of his peers ever could: He won what passes in Israel as a resounding victory, granting him the opportunity to become prime minister for a third time. And rather than reading like a typical self-serving retrospective, a classic bid for immortality, his memoir now becomes a reintroduction to a man who has rarely been out of the public eye for a quarter-century . . . [and] serves as an essential window into his character."
— The Washington Post

“From a purely literary point of view, this is without doubt the best autobiography written by an Israeli prime minister . . . [Netanyahu] demonstrates Churchillian abilities in the literary field."
— Literary Review

"Benjamin Netanyahu’s new book Bibi: My Story [is] worthy of being added to the shelf in a place of honor . . . the world will understand him and his country better as a result of this book."
— The Algemeiner

“Bibi: My Story is a surprisingly sentimental and ideologically thoughtful autobiography from a politician known for his cold, hard realism. Unlike other political autobiographies, which mostly serve to obscure their subjects, this one provides us with the tools to understand this signature figure in modern Jewish history . . . a far better book than we had any reason to think it would be.”
— Commentary Magazine

"Netanyahu wrote his memoir longhand. It is not the standard campaign autobiography. It has heft, and not just because it runs to 650 pages. Primed for debate, he conveys his point of view with plenty of notes. He paints in primary colors, not pastels. The canvas is filled with adulation, anger, frustration and dish. Bibi is substantive and barbed. It is interesting. Netanyahu has scores to settle and punches to land."
— The Guardian

Library Journal

10/28/2022

Netanyahu, age 73 and the former longest-serving prime minister and current Israeli political leader of the opposition, is intent on setting the historical record straight on his life, controversial career, and place in the history of Israel. Will Durant and Winston Churchill are his models for both writing and making history, and this book is designed to answer the narratives of his political opponents and those he often refers to as "the Israeli left-wing press." The book begins with his depiction of the idyllic Jerusalem childhood shared with older brother Yonatan under the watchful eyes of his parents. His father was a Jewish history scholar and Zionist activist, and he describes his mother as intelligent and empathetic. Netanyahu traces his experiences in military and public service, while dismissing those who opposed or betrayed him over the decades. Along the way, he touches on his relationships with great world leaders. As with all autobiographies, readers must consider the source, but this one offers fascinating insights into the history, politics, and links of Israel and the United States since World War II. VERDICT This books ranks of profound importance to readers interested in the recent history of the Middle East.—Joel Neuberg

DECEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

Benjamin Netanyahu’s audiobook memoir is not likely to change any opinions about the Israeli politician known as Bibi, but it does offer insights into every chapter of his life, from his youth to the most recent controversies. The audio version also benefits from the performance of narrator David Marantz, whose clean, professional style complements Netanyahu’s own delivery, which can be dry at times. Regardless of who is narrating, the audiobook offers a comprehensive overview of Netanyahu’s life. Supporters will embrace the work, while critics will find it self-serving. Either way, Marantz is critical to the audiobook’s success. His delivery avoids any sense of ego while highlighting the emotional life of a politician who continues to seek power no matter what challenges lie ahead. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2022-10-17
Long-winded memoir from the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history.

Two themes run throughout the monotonous narrative: Netanyahu’s admiration for his older brother, Yoni, who was killed during the special operations raid to free hostages taken by terrorists at Entebbe Airport in 1976, and the constant necessity of Israel to defend itself against aggressors. Born in Tel Aviv in 1949 to secular Jews with deep Zionist family ties, Bibi, as he was called, lived in various places in the U.S., including a stint as a student of architecture at MIT, but the excitement over the Six-Day War in 1967 brought Bibi swiftly home to start his military training. Yoni’s untimely death inspired his work in founding The Jonathan Institute, an organization against international terrorism, through which he would first meet many of the conservative intellectuals who supported his later political campaigns. From businessman to appointed “deputy chief of mission” in Israel’s embassy in Washington, D.C., Bibi made his mark as a public communicator of Israel’s point of view. “I tried to speak my mind, speak my heart, and above all speak plainly,” he writes in characteristically flat fashion. After a few years as a U.N. ambassador, the author ascended the ladder in the Likud Party, and he narrowly beat Shimon Peres for the position of prime minister in 1996, when he was just 46. Beginning in 2003, when he became finance minister, his “free market revolution”—privatization, cutting welfare, and crushing unions—picked up steam. Reelected as prime minister in 2009, he doubled down against Iran’s nuclear capabilities and in destroying terrorist networks, especially Hamas. He famously came to loggerheads with Barack Obama, while with Donald Trump, he was able to see several “missions accomplished”—e.g., normalized relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and the moving of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Now the leader of the opposition party again, Netanyahu seems to be scheming for a return to power.

Hardly a charm offensive, this is a straightforward account and defense of the author’s hard-line positions.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175059312
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	10/18/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,188,221

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