Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister, having led the country for a combined total of over sixteen years across multiple terms since 1996, most recently continuously since 2009. In 2023, his coalition government advanced a judicial overhaul that would have curtailed the Supreme Court's ability to strike down government decisions, triggering the largest sustained protest movement in Israeli history before a limited version was ultimately passed and partly struck down by the court itself.

Netanyahu has stood trial on corruption charges, including bribery and breach of trust, since 2020, proceedings that continued alongside his leadership through the Gaza war that followed Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack. Critics, cited extensively in Reuters' Middle East coverage, have argued the judicial overhaul and his continued hold on power are intertwined with his personal legal jeopardy, a characterization his allies dispute.