**Argentina, 1960. A car speeds through the streets of Buenos Aires. Inside are four Israeli secret agents and their prisoner: one of the most notorious war criminals of Nazi Germany. The Mossad operatives need to get this man, Adolf Eichmann, back to Israel to be tried for his crimes. Holding Eichmann's head in his lap is the leader of this ambitious mission, Rafi Eitan, whom Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later described as one of the heroes of Israeli intelligence'.** In this fast-paced and detailed memoir, Rafi Eitan tells the story of his remarkable life and career as an elite soldier and spymaster. He describes how as a teenager, he smuggled Jewish refugees into Palestine as part of the Palmach unit and how, as a spy in the newly established Mossad, he swam through sewers to blow up a British radar station, earning the name Rafi the Stinker'. He goes on to describe in detail his involvement in the extraordinary hunt for the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Eitan's espionage career eventually ended over his involvement in the controversial Jonathan Pollard espionage affair, which sparked intense debate over Israel's relations with the US. Packed with new insights into Eitan's role at the heart of Israeli military and intelligence organisations, this is a gripping read and essential reading for anyone interested in espionage history and the daring operation to capture Adolf Eichmann.

For many in Israel and elsewhere, Benjamin Netanyahu is anathema, an embarrassment; yet he continues to dominate Israeli public life. How can we explain his rise, his hold on Israeli politics, and his outsized role on the world's stage? In Bibi, Anshel Pfeffer reveals the formative influence of Netanyahu's father and grandfather, who bequeathed to him a once-marginal brand of Zionism combining Jewish nationalism with religious traditionalism. In the Zionist enterprise, Netanyahu embodies the triumph of the underdogs over the secular liberals who founded the nation. Netanyahu's Israel is a hybrid of ancient phobia and high-tech hope; of tribalism and globalism -- just like the man himself. We cannot understand Israel today without first understanding the man who leads it.

A deeply reported biography of the scandal-plagued Israeli Prime Minister, showing that we cannot understand Israel -- its history, present, and future -- without first understanding the life and worldview of the man who leads it Benjamin Netanyahu is embroiled in numerous scandals, all of his own making, and may soon be ousted from the office he has held longer than any prior Israeli Prime Minister outside of David Ben Gurion. But Bibi, as he is known by friend and foe alike, is no stranger to controversy. For many in Israel and elsewhere, he is an embarrassment, a threat to democracy, even a precursor to Donald Trump. He nevertheless continues to dominate Israeli public life -- and he may yet survive his current crises, the most challenging of his career. How can we explain Netanyahu's rise, his hold on Israeli politics, and his outsized role on the world's stage? In Bibi, the Haaretz journalist Anshel Pfeffer argues that we must view Netanyahu as representing the triumph of the underdogs in the Zionist enterprise. Born in 1949, one year after the state of Israel itself, Netanyahu came of age in a nation dominated by liberal, secular Zionists. Yet Netanyahu's grandfather and father bequeathed to him a brand of Zionism integrating Jewish nationalism and religious traditionalism, and he identified with the groups at the margins of Israeli society: right-wing Revisionists, orthodox, Mizrahi Jews, and small-time professionals living in the new towns and cities dotting the Israeli landscape. Netanyahu cultivated each faction individually and then fused them into a coalition that has frequently proven unstoppable in Israeli politics. Netanyahu is also a child of America, where he spent many years as a young man, and where he learned the techniques of modern political campaigns as well as the necessity of controlling the media cycle. The product of the affluent East Coast Jewish community and the Reagan era, Netanyahu's politics and worldview were formed as much by American Cold War conservatism as by his family's hardline right-wing Zionism. As Pfeffer demonstrates in this penetrating biography, Netanyahu's influence will endure even if his career soon comes to an end. The Israel he has helped make is a hybrid of ancient phobia and high-tech hope, tribalism and globalism -- just like the man himself.