Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (Hebrew:He-Benjamin_Netanyahu.ogg בִּנְיָמִין "ביבי" נְתַנְיָהוּ, born 21 October 1949) is the new Prime Minister-Designate of Israel. He is Chairman of the conservative Likud Party and was previously the 9th Prime Minister of Israel from June 1996 to July 1999. Netanyahu is the first (and to date only) Prime Minister of Israel to be born after the State of Israel's foundation. He was Finance Minister of Israel until 9 August 2005, when he resigned in protest at the Gaza Disengagement Plan advocated by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Netanyahu retook the Likud leadership on 20 December 2005. As of December 2006, he became the official leader of the Opposition in the Knesset and Chairman of the Likud Party. In August 2007, he retained the Likud leadership by beating Moshe Feiglin in party elections. On 20 February 2009, Netanyahu was designated by Israeli President Shimon Peres to form the country's next government, following the results of Israel's parliamentary elections of 10 February.

Netanyahu was the Likud's candidate for Prime Minister in the Israeli elections that took place on February 10, 2009, as Tzipi Livni, the current Designated Acting Prime Minister under the outgoing Olmert government, had been unable to form a viable governing coalition. During the race, Netanyahu's campaign website was noted for its strong resemblance to the one used the previous year by United States President Barack Obama to reach his supporters during his campaign, including colors, fonts, icons, the use of embedded video, and social networking options such as Twitter.[9] Opinion polls showed Likud in the lead, but with as many as a third of Israeli voters undecided.[10] In the election itself, Likud won the second highest number of seats, largely due to many of Likud's supporters defecting to Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party. Netanyahu, however, claimed victory on the basis that right wing parties won the majority of the vote, and on 20 February 2009, Netanyahu was designated by Israeli President Shimon Peres to succeed Ehud Olmert as Prime Minister, should Netanyahu be able to form a coalition government.

Despite his coalition partners having won a majority of 65 seats in the designated Knesset, Netanyahu preferred a broader centrist coalition and turned to his Kadima rivals, chaired by Tzipi Livni, to join his government. However, Livni's party having outnumbered Likud in the election results, along with a difference of opinion on how to pursue the "peace process", led those talks to fail.
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