Territorial concessions

Only in 1988, when he returned to Israel, did he become involved in domestic politics, winning a seat in the Knesset and becoming deputy foreign minister.

Politically, he positioned himself to the right of previous leaders of the secular, centre-right Likud Party. After Likud lost the 1992 general election, Mr Netanyahu became party chairman.

In 1996, he became Israel's first directly elected prime minister after narrowly beating the incumbent, Shimon Peres, who had called early polls following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Mr Netanyahu was also Israel's youngest prime minister and the first to be born after the state was founded in 1948.

His first term was brief but dramatic, beset by divisions in his coalition.

Despite having fiercely criticised the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians, in 1997 Mr Netanyahu signed a deal handing over 80% of Hebron to Palestinian Authority control and signed the Wye River Memorandum in 1998 outlining further withdrawals from the West Bank.

This alienated his supporters on the right. At the same time, he did not bend sufficiently to keep the support of those in Israel who favoured a land-for-peace deal. His critics said a more seasoned politician could have avoided many of the difficulties in the first place.

Mr Netanyahu survived rather than prospered, and lost office in 1999 after he called elections 17 months early. He lost the premiership to Ehud Barak, Mr Netanyahu's former commander, who promised to push for a permanent peace deal and withdraw from southern Lebanon.

"Bibi didn't succeed in his first term. He wasn't a very good Prime Minister," his father - a strong ideological influence - told Maariv newspaper. "At the time, I was shocked to see how he defeated [Prime Minister] Shimon Peres who was a well-known personality, while Bibi was just a young man. I was sure he would be defeated. But I think he learned from his mistakes."

Party split

Mr Netanyahu resigned as a Member of the Knesset and chairman of Likud following the election loss. He was succeeded as Likud leader by Ariel Sharon.

After Mr Sharon was elected prime minister in 2001, Mr Netanyahu returned to government first as foreign minister and then as finance minister. In 2005, he resigned in protest at the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

His chance came again in 2005, when Mr Sharon - just before a massive stroke that has left him in a coma - split from Likud and set up a new centrist party, Kadima.

Mr Netanyahu won the Likud leadership and was a trenchant critic of the Kadima-led coalition and Mr Sharon's successor, Ehud Olmert.

Mr Olmert became engulfed in corruption allegations and was eventually forced to step down. Early elections were called in 2009.

Although Likud came second to Kadima in the polls, it was Mr Netanyahu who President Shimon Peres asked to form a new coalition government, ushering in an unusually long period of political calm.

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