The evolution of Netanyahu's governance and how it impacted Israel's character
Netanyahu is, in my opinion, an avatar of the development of the conservative movement worldwide, so I want to compare his development in terms of style of government and how it affected Israel.
Netanyahu began his career as something between a Nixonian and a classic Reaganite/Bush Jr conservative. A combination of pragmatism and manipulation of fears and negative sentiments in Israeli society through dog whistles and opposition to the establishment and a sense of persecution, and an optimistic capitalist, geopolitical power, basic cultural conservatism and a lot of emphasis on media image and charisma. He was a friend of Rupert Murdoch and many Republicans who flourished in Reagan's and later Gingrich's Washington, was connected to the traditional evangelicals of expensive suits and megachurches, etc. In Israel, he gathered around him traditional right-wing intellectuals who opposed Oslo and dreamed of a Reagan-style revolution/Nixon's counter-revolution.
In his first term in 1996, he was very aggressive against government institutions and the media, felt that the old elites were after him, attacked the media and legal establishment for trying to prosecute him, and tried to fire anyone he didn't like. At the same time, he tried to privatize everything he could and lead a cultural revolution of free markets and nationalism.
Netanyahu was ultimately defeated in the election because of his style, dragged into the interrogation room on live television where he again blamed the constitutional establishment, but narrowly escaped and went into political exile. Netanyahu concluded that the old establishment and the 'elites' were too powerful and was afraid of them.
When Netanyahu was elected again, from 2009 to 2015, Netanyahu was afraid of the state institutions and the old establishment and tried as much as he could not to undermine them except by interfering in the media. He tried to lead a slow peace process, was neutered by Shimon Peres on the one hand and did not have the power that he would have later, so he was restrained and managed out of nowhere a cold war in the state institutions or a ceasefire after the trauma of the investigations in 1999.
The turning point comes in the 2015 elections: Netanyahu was closed in on every side, the left was preparing for an easy victory after feeling that the public was fed up with Netanyahu, but Bibi started one of the most aggressive campaigns ever in Israel with Trump-style incitement (ironically, this was before Trump entered the political system), presented himself as persecuted by the elites who work against the right and want to sell the country, destroyed everyone on the right and left, won against all odds. The result was known in advance:
Since 2015, Netanyahu has realized that he can do whatever he wants without regard for anyone and that he is actually 'above' the old elites, will always receive backing from his supporters, and can finally do everything he has always wanted. From the strategy of 'silence will be answered with silence' against the elites, he emerged with full force, with attacks on every institution that was identified with the left and every institution that he perceived as disloyal, as well as attempts to take over television and establish alternative right-wing media, attempts to take over the public service and fire people he perceives as disloyal and "deep state", business economic reforms, but ones that will allow Netanyahu's loyalists and right-wing businessmen in the business community to create a monopoly, cultivation of right-wing influencers who emerged from new media, and a more conservative-traditional discourse.
The important stage came in 2019 - when the investigations against Netanyahu began, the attack escalated all the way to the Supreme Court, and Netanyahu's rhetoric cuased the right to change, moderate figures are seen as subservient to the 'elites', which paved the way for a new generation of young right-wingers (including Netanyahu's son), who feel that the old right has failed - and the new right needs to take over the state's institutions and 'truly govern.'
From there we have reached today's point, when this rhetoric and the new generation of right-wingers who want to rule have paved the way for more extreme figures like Ben Gvir, who basically represents the extension of "Bibism", and more extreme than Netanyahu himself.
The final point in the revolution is after October 7: Netanyahu, and the right, did not moderate but rather became extreme in every arena: the feeling of betrayal by the security establishment, the accusation of the protesters against the legal reform and their perception as traitors, the empowerment of the Deep State theory, and the vision of the 'Super Sparta'. Netanyahu's propaganda channel, Channel 14, has turned politics into a daily struggle, a situation in which people consume his propaganda every day and establish an identity based on it and are sometimes criticizing Netanyahu when he is not extreme enough, and the rise of conspirators and Post-Liberal intellectuals. Netanyahu and his people have become consumed with a desire for revenge, demanding complete control over the existing establishment to the point where they are backing street thugs against opponents of the regime.
To some extent, Netanyahu's evolution represents the evolution of the Republican Party. From a conservative, Hawkish Neo-Con, to a paranoid 'persecuted by the establishment', to a fundamental takeover of the existing order and a reshaping of the image of the state.