Star of Zion

One night in Los Angeles five years ago, well into his quest to become Israel’s next prime minister, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu had dinner with a group of liberal American Jewish activists, Barbra Streisand among them. It had promised to be the most hostile of audiences; several of the guests, like Streisand, supported Peace Now, which favored dramatic compromise with the Palestinians and partial withdrawal from the occupied territories—policies that Netanyahu had adamantly opposed. But in his stint as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations and as a fixture on CNN and Nightline, Netanyahu had grown accustomed to facing adversaries and, if not necessarily winning them over, at least winning their respect.