1. He’s wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
- Netanyahu has an ICC arrest warrant against him for “the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
- According to U.S. law and the Genocide Convention, U.S. officials are obligated to prevent and punish genocide, which should include arresting Netanyahu if he steps foot on U.S. soil and handing him over to The Hague for trial. According to a July 2026 poll, 49% of Americans believe the U.S. should arrest Netanyahu versus 27% who believe it shouldn’t.
2. His government is still committing genocide in Gaza - in violation of the supposed ceasefire - and ethnically cleansing Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
- As noted by Amnesty International on September 1, 2026, Israel is “continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, even after the so-called ceasefire of October 2025.”
- The Israeli military has continued to kill Palestinians in Gaza almost every single day since the ceasefire supposedly began and continues to restrict the entry of food, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies in violation of Israel’s obligations under the ceasefire deal. As of September 18, 2026, the Israeli military has killed at least 1,386 Palestinians, including more than 300 children and injured 4,784 others, in Gaza since October 11, 2025, when the ceasefire supposedly went into effect.
- Israel has also continued to systematically destroy Gaza to make it unlivable and concentrate forcibly displaced Palestinians in a small area along the coast while trying to find countries that will take them in. In the West Bank, the Israeli military and settlers backed by the government are waging an intensifying campaign of terror to force Palestinians out of their homes and off their land so Israel can take them over.
3. He’s trying to sabotage Trump’s plan for Gaza because he wants to force Palestinians out of Gaza.
- Netanyahu only agreed to the ceasefire deal under pressure from President Donald Trump and has been trying to undermine it by continuing military attacks while taking over more and more Gaza territory in violation of the terms of the ceasefire.
- As Netanyahu’s defense minister, Israel Katz, explained in early September 2026, Israel’s government believes “there is no other solution” except to remove Palestinians from Gaza but it needs the backing of Trump to do so.
4. He talked Trump into starting a disastrous war against Iran.
- According to reporting by The New York Times and other media outlets, Netanyahu convinced Trump to launch an unprovoked, illegal attack on Iran starting on February 28, 2026, assuring him it would be quick and easy to overthrow the Iranian government.
- Nearly seven months later, the war is still going on and has killed thousands of Iranians and at least 18 U.S. soldiers while wreaking havoc on the global economy.
5. He once claimed that “America is a thing you can move very easily” and boasted that he “de facto put an end to the Oslo Accords.”
- In 2001, after his first term as prime minister (1996-1999), Netanyahu was caught on video boasting to a group of Israeli settlers that he sabotaged the Oslo Accords, the series of agreements negotiated under U.S. auspices that were supposed to lead to the creation of a Palestinian state by 1999, declaring: “I de facto put an end to the Oslo Accords.”
- He also claimed that he knew how to manipulate the U.S., declaring: “I know what America is… America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction.”
6. He’s spent his entire political career trying to destroy the possibility of a Palestinian state being created as part of the “two-state solution.”
- Since he entered politics in the early 1990s opposing the Oslo Accords and negotiations with the Palestinians, Netanyahu has been working to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state as part of the so-called “two-state solution” advocated by the international community. As he declared in 2024: “everyone knows that I am the one who for decades blocked the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
- One of the primary ways he’s done this is by massively expanding Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law.
7. He secretly helped Hamas maintain control in Gaza to sow divisions among Palestinians so he would have an excuse not to negotiate for the creation of a Palestinian state.
- For years, Netanyahu secretly backed Hamas, including allowing it to receive millions of dollars in funding from abroad, to keep it in power inside Gaza in order to sow political divisions with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank so he would have an excuse not to negotiate for the creation of a Palestinian state. As Netanyahu reportedly told members of his Likud party in 2019: “whoever is against a Palestinian state should be for” transferring funds to Hamas.
- Netanyahu’s backing of Hamas was in line with Israeli policy dating back to the 1980s to secretly support Hamas to fuel divisions between it and the Palestine Liberation Organization, part of a strategy of divide and conquer.
8. He’s helped empower and mainstream the most extreme, dangerous elements in Israeli society.
- Since the 1990s, Netanyahu has played a major role in Israeli politics and society moving to the extreme, racist right, including appointing increasingly far-right figures, including settlers, to senior positions in his governments, culminating in his alliance with the overtly Jewish supremacist and fascist Jewish Power and Religious Zionism parties, who are central players in his outgoing coalition.
- Jewish Power in particular is made up of followers of the extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose Kach party and offshoots were designated terrorist organizations by the U.S. government because of a series of deadly terrorist attacks carried out by members against Palestinians, liberal Israelis, and Americans. Prior to entering politics, Jewish Power leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, who Netanyahu appointed minister of national security, was convicted of inciting racism against Palestinians and of supporting a terrorist organization.
9. The family of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin blamed Netanyahu and other members of his Likud party for Rabin’s assassination by a right-wing Israeli extremist.
- Netanyahu made his political name in the 1990s opposing the Oslo Accords, leading a vicious campaign of incitement against the talks and then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. After Rabin’s assassination by a right-wing Israeli in 1995, many Israelis, including Rabin’s widow, blamed Netanyahu and other members of the Likud party for Rabin’s death.
10. His reelection campaign is race-baiting against Palestinians (again).
- As with previous elections, Netanyahu’s campaign has been race-baiting against Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, who make up more than 20% of Israel’s population, releasing an AI generated ad depicting his chief rival, Gadi Eisenkot, running past a man wearing a t-shirt that reads “Israeli unity” to embrace the leader of the United Arab List party, Mansour Abbas.
11. He’s by far Israel’s longest serving prime minister.
- Netanyahu has been elected prime minister six times since 1996 and is currently running for his seventh term. In total, he’s been prime minister for 19 years.
12. His real family name is Mileikowsky.
- Netanyahu’s father was born Benzion Mileikowsky in Poland before he immigrated to Palestine in 1920 and began using the more Hebrew sounding Netanyahu.
13. He’s facing corruption charges that could send him to prison.
- In 2019, Netanyahu was indicted on criminal charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate cases that could send him to prison if convicted. The trial, which is ongoing, has been repeatedly delayed while Netanyahu has maneuvered to escape the charges.
- Previously, Israeli police recommended Netanyahu be indicted on corruption charges for influence-peddling in 1997 and in 1999 police again recommended he be indicted for corruption.
Go deeper
- Fact Sheet: Two Years of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
- Fact Sheet: Netanyahu: Putting “an End to the Oslo Accords” & the Two-State Solution
- Fact Sheet: Meet Israel’s New Government (2021)
- Fact Sheet: 10 Things to Know About Itamar Ben-Gvir
- Fact Sheet: Meir Kahane & The Extremist Kahanist Movement
- Fact Sheet: Palestinian Citizens of Israel