Netanyahu: The Road to Power

The authors, who have written about former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and current Labor Party leader Ehud Barak, take the reader on a superficial tour of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's life. They focus on his influences: the extreme right-wing leanings of his family, the importance of America (where he twice lived for lengthy periods of time) and the death of his older brother in the 1976 Israeli rescue of hostages at the Entebbe airport. Caspit and Kfir show how Netanyahu's powerful ambition and strong work ethic helped propel him from a political attache at the Israeli Embassy and a frequent guest on ABC's Nightline in 1982 into the prime minister's office in 1996. To their credit, they mention his role in the inflammatory rhetoric that culminated in the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, but otherwise there's little analysis. Shallow psychological diggings, such as that Netanyahu ""was a `middle child,' always struggling for his father's recognition and his mother's love,"" are left fallow. Other comments, such as that Netanyahu ""was never the kind of man to pick up women,"" appear ludicrous in light of his three marriages and his celebrated affair in 1993 that caused a scandal in Israel and bears some similarities to Bill Clinton's current troubles. Netanyahu is often described as slick and lacking in profundity; unfortunately, this book fits that description as well. (Nov.)