Benjamin Netanyahu Born in Tel-Aviv on October 21, 1949, Benjamin Netanyahu grew up in Jerusalem. He spent his high school years in the United States, where his father, Ben-Zion Netanyahu, was a history professor. He returned to Israel in 1967, enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces and served in an elite commando unit. Mr. Netanyahu participated in various missions during the War of Attrition, including the Beirut Airport operation. He took part in the rescue of the hijacked Sabena Airlines hostages at Ben Gurion Airport, in which he was wounded. He was also cited for outstanding operational leadership by O.G. Northern Command, the late Maj. Gen. Motta Gur. He was discharged from the I.D.F. in 1972 and reached the rank of captain following the Yom Kippur War. Mr. Netanyahu received a B.Sc. in Architecture and an M.Sc. in Management Studies from M.I.T. He also studied political science at M.I.T. and Harvard University. After completing his studies, he was employed by the Boston Consulting Group, an international business consulting firm, and he later joined the senior management of Rim Industries in Jerusalem. In 1979, Benjamin Netanyahu initiated and organized an international conference against terrorism, under the auspices of the Jonathan Institute-a private foundation dedicated to the study of terrorism, which was named after his brother Jonathan who fell while leading the rescue party at Entebbe. World leaders, including former U.S. President George Bush and former Secretary of State George Shultz, participated in this conference, and a subsequent one in 1984. In 1982, at the request of then-Ambassador Moshe Arens, Mr. Netanyahu assumed the position of Deputy Chief of Mission in the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He was a member of the first delegation to the talks on strategic cooperation between Israel and United States the and two years later was appointed Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, where he served for four years, returning to Israel in 1988. Elected to the 12th Knesset as a Likud member, he was then appointed Deputy Foreign Minister. During the Gulf War, he served as Israel ' s principal representative in the international arena, and in October 1991 he was a senior member of the Israeli delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference. This initiated the first direct negotiations between Israel and Syria, Lebanon, and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation. Elected Likud Party Chairman in 1993 and the party ' s candidate for Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu became Israel 's 9th Prime Minister on May 29, 1996, and sworn in to the post on June 18, 1996, following Knesset approval. Mr. Netanyahu, married to Sara, with three children, is also the author and editor of several books which have been published in Hebrew, English, Arabic, Russian and other languages.