Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: A Life of Vision and Purpose

Join host Yael Eckstein as she has the incredible honor and privilege of welcoming Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the podcast. Having recently won re-election to the office he held previously for a combined 15 years, the Prime Minister is also celebrating the release of his new memoir, Bibi: My Story, already on the New York Times Bestsellers List. During this insightful conversation, Prime Minister Netanyahu talks about living a life with purpose and vision — and about the people who encouraged him to do that. Listen as Prime Minister Netanyahu also shares with Yael his thoughts on the historic relationship between Christians and Jews and the role this friendship has played in the founding of the Jewish State, as well as the long-standing bond between Israel and the United States. For anyone with a love for Israel, this is a Conversation you don’t want to miss!
Episode Notes
Recently re-elected Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a brief break from the work of forming a new government to talk with Yael Eckstein, President and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, in a free-ranging conversation about his new memoir, Bibi: My Life Story, the historical significance of Israel, and the long-standing relationship between Christians and Jews, and Israel and the U.S.
In his memoir, the Prime Minister weaves his personal story as a soldier, diplomat, statesman and political leader with the story of Israel. “I think people will glean a lot of insights from my own life, which is a life of purpose. And that purpose was to assure the security, prosperity, and permanence of the one and only Jewish State,” he told Yael. “If you are looking for a life of purpose, I think you’ll glean a lot of insight from by book.”
As the Prime Minister reflected, the story of Israel is a parable for all humanity. If the Jewish people can come back from the Holocaust and reconstitute their ancient homeland after 3,500 years and rebuild that nation into a leading world power, then “there’s hope for all humanity, for all people.”
The one guiding principle that has influenced Prime Minister Netanyahu throughout his resilient career were three words that his father, a renown historian, instilled in him: “History, history, history. My father told me if you don’t understand how you got here, you are not going to understand how to go forward,” the Prime Minister said. “And in Israel, history begins with three words: Bible, Bible, Bible. There’s no meaning to the Jewish people without the Bible; there’s no meaning to our future without our past.”
When it comes to the rise of Israel as the modern-Jewish state, Prime Minister Netanyahu said there is no one more important to its foundation than the man he calls “our modern-day Moses, Theodor Herzl,” who in 1896 prophetically called for the re-establishment of the ancient Jewish homeland. “And in the course of the birth of Israel, the rise of modern Israel, we have not had better friends than our Christian friends around the world. It’s a tremendous partnership, which I deeply, deeply value,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said.
On the strong bond between Israel and the United States, the Prime Minister said, “The alliance between American and Israel is, first and foremost, an alliance between peoples. The overwhelming majority of Americans see in Israel a bastion of Western Civilization in the heart of the Middle East. That bond goes above and below everything. It is the connecting glue between our nations.”
For more of this insightful and inspiring dialogue, listen to Conversations with Yael, with Yael Eckstein, President and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.