Born in Tel Aviv to secular Jewish parents , Netanyahu joined the Israel Defense Forces shortly after the Six-Day War in 1967 , and became a team leader in the Sayeret Matkal special forces unit . Netanyahu took part in many missions , including Operation Inferno ( 1968 ) , Operation Gift ( 1968 ) and Operation Isotope ( 1972 ) , during which he was shot in the shoulder . Netanyahu fought on the front lines in the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War in 1973 , taking part in special forces raids along the Suez Canal , and then leading a commando assault deep into Syrian territory . Netanyahu achieved the rank of captain before being discharged . After graduating from MIT with a Bachelor of Science ( SB ) and a Master of Science ( SM ) , Netanyahu became an economic consultant for the Boston Consulting Group . Netanyahu returned to Israel in 1978 to found the Yonatan Netanyahu Anti-Terror Institute , named after his brother Yonatan Netanyahu , who died leading Operation Entebbe . In 1984 , Netanyahu was appointed the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir , a role he held until 1988 . He was subsequently elected to the Knesset , before becoming the Leader of Likud in 1993 ; he led the party to victory at the 1996 election , becoming Israel 's youngest-ever Prime Minister . After defeat in the 1999 election , Netanyahu left politics , returning to the private sector . He later returned to politics , serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance in the government of Ariel Sharon , but he would eventually resign over disagreements regarding the Gaza disengagement plan . As Finance Minister , Netanyahu initiated major reform of the Israeli economy , which was credited by commentators as having significantly improved Israel 's subsequent economic performance . Netanyahu returned to the leadership of Likud in December 2005 , after Sharon quit to form a new party , Kadima . Although Likud finished second in the 2009 election to Kadima , Netanyahu was able to form a coalition government with other right-wing parties , and was sworn in as Prime Minister for a second time . He went on to lead Likud to victory in the 2013 and 2015 elections . Since December 2016 , Netanyahu has been under investigation by Israeli police and prosecutors for a number of alleged corruption scandals , culminating in the Attorney General announcing his intent to file indictments against him in 2019 . After the April 2019 election resulted in no party being able to form government , a second election was called for September
Operation Isotope
Sabena Flight 571
Benjamin Netanyahu